Member Yihetuan Posted July 29, 2021 Member Share Posted July 29, 2021 Just as a preface, I am not passing any moral judgment or looking at this subject from a sociological or political view. I'm more interested in this topic as a phenomena that occurred in Asian films as a necessity due to the lack of ethnic actors, cost, etc. Please post examples of "blackface" in martial arts films regardless of era or country of origin. Of course many of the examples of "blackface" were absurd or just ridiculous looking and had a comedic effect whether intended or not. Some right off the top of my head include Lee Hoi-san in Enter the Fat Dragon, the Indian Yoga master in Master of the Flying Guillotine, and the two Japanese actors who played the Papua New Guinean "Guillotine Brothers" in The Blind Karate Man & challenged Tadashi Yamashita in the beginning of that movie. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted July 29, 2021 Member Share Posted July 29, 2021 Rosa and Don't Give a Damn are a few of the more notorious examples portraying Chinese characters "spoofing" the black American stereotypes, more than actually playing a "black" character like Lee Hoi San in ETFD. Also, perhaps not technically "martial arts" films. That term is a little narrow. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted July 29, 2021 Member Share Posted July 29, 2021 Judge Bao or Zhong Kui are often portrayed with black faces in movies. There are also some black faces in old Taiwanese wuxia pian but I don't remember the titles at this moment. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted July 30, 2021 Author Member Share Posted July 30, 2021 18 hours ago, ShawAngela said: Judge Bao or Zhong Kui are often portrayed with black faces in movies. There are also some black faces in old Taiwanese wuxia pian but I don't remember the titles at this moment. You misunderstood my question. I'm not talking about literal black faces like Judge Bao and Zhong Kui - those characters are portrayed as having literal black faces in Chinese literature or mythology. I'm referring to the term "black face" where an actor of another race puts on makeup/prosthetics to appear to be of a different ethnicity. Like Lee Hoi San in this clip from Enter the Fat Dragon where he has an afro wig and dark makeup on his face to imitate Jim Kelly. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted July 30, 2021 Member Share Posted July 30, 2021 (edited) Don't forget the yoga master in One Armed Boxer. Plus all the tribesmen and sacrificial virgin in Armour of God. Edited July 30, 2021 by TibetanWhiteCrane 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted July 30, 2021 Author Member Share Posted July 30, 2021 23 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said: Rosa and Don't Give a Damn are a few of the more notorious examples portraying Chinese characters "spoofing" the black American stereotypes, more than actually playing a "black" character like Lee Hoi San in ETFD. Also, perhaps not technically "martial arts" films. That term is a little narrow. I don't recall much about Pom Pom aka Rosa but I do remember Burger Cop for its rather notorious scene with Takeshi Kaneshiro and Yuen Biao. 1 hour ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said: Don't forget the yoga master in One Armed Boxer. Plus all the tribesmen and sacrificial virgin in Armour of God. ah yes, I just watched One Armed Boxer over the weekend. Looks like all Indian fighters are Yogis. I still bust up at the Indian Yoga master doing the handstand and running circles around Wang Yu. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted July 30, 2021 Member Share Posted July 30, 2021 Lin Chong in The Story of the Dragon. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted July 30, 2021 Member Share Posted July 30, 2021 3 hours ago, Cognoscente said: Lin Chong in The Story of the Dragon. Lin Chong, the Shaws' actor who played in The singing thief ? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted July 30, 2021 Member Share Posted July 30, 2021 No. I mean this guy whose alternate name is the main one for the Singing Thief actor on HKMDB. https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?id=14766&complete_credits=1&display_set=eng 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted July 31, 2021 Author Member Share Posted July 31, 2021 17 hours ago, Cognoscente said: Lin Chong in The Story of the Dragon. yes, it's easy to get confused in this one because there is a legit black actor playing one of the thugs in the beginning along with Roy Horan and Robert Kerver but the 'blackface' comes much later with Lin Chong wearing an afro wig and talking 'jive' as a karate master. Strange because this movie is filled with real black extras that could've played the role but perhaps Lin Chong was a Blasian character? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member sifu iron perm Posted July 31, 2021 Member Share Posted July 31, 2021 This should not even be a controversial topic in discussion, much to be addressed! Especially as many outsiders have supported the industry and the is well shaped in the martial arts world as we are all family. But that was fucked up! I call it a certain time period. That's all. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted August 22, 2021 Author Member Share Posted August 22, 2021 I remembered another one with "blackface" and that's the Billy Chong/Carl Scott film, Sun Dragon aka A Hard Way to Die. I recall there is a Chinese actor playing a Native American and he gets killed by Billy Chong in one of the fight scenes. This a movie that is so schlocky and anachronistic that it's a laugh riot all the way through. I wouldn't mind seeing this get a HD release one day. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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