Budy Boegank: asian actors/actresses

Showing posts with label asian actors/actresses. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Hiroyuki Sanada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroyuki_Sanada

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0760796/bio

Born: Hiroyuki Shimosawa
October 12, 1960, Tokyo, Japan
Age 50
Occupation: Actor
Years active: 1969-present
Spouse: Satomi Tezuka(1990-1997- 2 kids

He is a relatively unknown Japanese actor.

Early life and career
At age 11, he began studying Kyokushin kaikan, a form of stand up, full contact karate. He began his training at martial arts star Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club. With him knowing how to perform martial arts, this led to being in contact with Michelle Yeoh. He starred in Danny Boyle's Sunshine later on with Yeoh. He is also good friends with Jackie Chan, although the only movie he starred in with Chan was Rush Hour 3, where he played Kenji, Insp. Lee's 'brother', Speed Racer, where he played Mr. Musha, owner of Musha Motors.

Speed Racer. He's really sexy in this picture!!!!!!!

The Last Samurai

Rush Hour 3

Sunshine

In 1999 and 2000, he performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company in their play King Lear. This is the first time a Japanese actor had played a role in this play and also the first time a Japanese actor had performed with the group. This earned him an MBE

Handdrawn picture of Sanada

Some of his movies include The Last Samurai, where he played Ujio, who teaches Cruise's character Algren how to sword fight, the 2005 movie The White Countess, starring Ralph Fiennes, he plays Matsuda, the Japanese Imperialist who befriends Fiennes' character, 2007's The City of Your Final Destination, where he plays the young lover of Anthony Hopkin's character, Rush Hour 3 where he plays Kenji. He also had to learn Mandarin for his role of Mo Gik in The Promise. He is a graduate of the Film Dept. at Nihon University. The role that got him famous was his role in the 1978 movie The Shogun's Samurai.

The White Countess

The Shogun's Samurai

Ken Watanabe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Watanabe

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0913822/bio

Born: Oc. 21, 1959, Koide, Niigata, Japan. Age 51
Occupation- actor
Years active- 1979-present
Spouse- Yumiko Watanabe(div. 2005)
Kaho Minami(2005-present)

He is a well known Japanese stage, TV and film actor. In the US, he is known for roles like General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima, Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in The Last Samurai. When it comes to awards, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Japan Academy Prize for Best Actor. He has also starred in Batman Begins and Inception, playing a Japanese businessman named Mr. Saito.

Early life
Watanabe was born in Koide, Niigata prefecture. His mother was a school teacher and his father taught calligraphy. He is brother to Yuki Watanabe, he visits his nephew Michael and niece Maia in New York. He has 2 children, one of them, Anne Watanabe is a model.

Career
Japanese Roles
After graduating high school in 1978, he moved to Tokyo to start his acting career with the Tokyo-based theatre group En. While with the group, he was cast as the hero in the play Shimodani Mannencho Monogatari, under Yukio Ninagawa's rules
In 1982, he made his first TV appearance, Michinaru Hanran (Unknown Rebellion) and his first appearance on TV as a samurai in Mibu no koiuta. His film debut came in 1984 in the movie MacArthur's Children
His main roles in Japan are of playing a Samurai, such as: in 1987 Dokuganryu Masamune, a 50 episode show for Japan-based broadcast network NHK.
In 1989, while filming Haruki Kadokawa's Heaven and Earth, he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. He continued acting while undergoing chemotherapy treatments, and in 1991 suffered a relapse.
In 2006, he won Best Lead Actor at the Japanese Academy Awards for his role in Memories of Tomorrow, where he played a patient with Alzheimer's Disease.

International Roles
He was introduced to Western audiences in the 2003 movie The Last Samurai. His role of Katsumoto earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In the 2005 movie Batman Begins, Watanabe plays Ra's Al Ghul and in Memoirs of a Geisha, Chairman Iwamura. In 2006 he starred in the movie Letters from Iwo Jima, playing Tadamichi Kuribayashi. In 2004, he was featured in People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People

Personal Life
In 1989, he was diagnosed with bone marrow leukemia, but later recovered. He revealed in 2006 that he was suffering from hepatitis C but was doing good and undergoing treatment.

Considered unusually tall by Japanese standards, he gained 20 pounds to be an even more imposing presence as Katsumoto in The Last Samurai

Filmography
1984
-MacArthur's Children- Tetsuo Nakai
9 Deaths of the Ninja- Sensei
1985
-Kekkon Annai Mystery- Funayama Tetsuya/Masakazu Sekine
1986
- The Sea and Poison- Toda
- Tampopo- Gun
1987
-Karate Warrior- Master Kimura
1988
-Karate Warrior 2- Master Kimura
1989
-Violent Zone- Old Mishima
1998
- Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald- Raita Onuki, Truck driver
2000
- Space Travellers- Sakamaki
- Ikebukuro West Gate Park- Insp. Yokoyama
2001
-Genji: A Thousand Year Love- Fujiwara Michinaga/Fujiwara Nobutaka
2003
-The Last Samurai- Katsumoto Moritsugu

-T.R.Y- Masanobu Azuma
2004
- Castle of Sand- Shuchiro Imanishi
2005

-Memoirs of a Geisha- Chairman Iwamura

- Batman Begins- Ra's Al Ghul's decoy

- Year One in the North- Hideaki Komatsubara
2006
- Memories of Tomorrow- Masayuki Saeki

- Letters from Iwo Jima- Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi

2009
-The Unbroken- Hajime Onchi

- Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant- Mr. Hibernius Tall

2010

- Inception- Saito

Daniel Dae Kim

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Dae_Kim

Born: August 4, 1968, Busan, South Korea. Age 43
Profession: Actor
Years active- 1991-present

Best known for his roles of Chin Ho Kelly on Hawaii Five-O and Jin-Soo Kwon on Lost.

Early life
Born in Busan, South Korea and moved to the US when he was 2. He is a graduate of Freedom High School in Bethelehem, Pennsylvania, and Hartford College in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania. completed a theatre major at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and graduated from NYU's Graduate Acting Program in 1996

Career
Before playing Jin-Soo Kwon on Lost, he was best known for doing sci-fi and fantasy. He has been on CSI:Crime Scene Investigation as a treasury agent, NYPD Blue, Charmed, Star Trek:Enterprise, Star Trek:Voyager, The Shield, ER, The Andromeda Strain, Angel, Crusade, 24, Seinfeld. His acting talents include Spider Man 2, where he played a scientist in Otto Octavius' lab, who later goes on to be called Doc Ock, and the movie Crash. In 2005, he went on to be called People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. In the play The King & I, he played the King of Siam at the Royal Albert Theatre in London, England. And on Sept. 20, 2010, Hawaii Five-O premiered, with Kim being the first actor cast.

He was also arrested in Hawaii, for a DUI. On Oct. 25, 2007, he was caught driving under the influence of alcohol in Honolulu.

Does it look like he's smiling?

Filmography

-American Shaolin(1994)- Gao
-Beverly Hills, 90210(1997)- Dr. Sturla, in episodes Forgive and Forget and The Way We Weren't

-NYPD Blue(1997)- Simon Lee

-The Jackal(1997)- Akashi, the Marine Sharpshooter/Sniper

-The Pretender(1998)- Lenny Duc, in episode Collateral Damage

-Brave New World(1998)- Ingram
-Seinfeld(1998)- medical student, in episode The Burning
-For the Love of the Game(1999)- E.R. Doctor
-Crusade(1999)- Lt. John Matheson

-Star Trek:Voyager(2000)- Gotana-Retz, in episode Blink of an Eye
-Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For(2000)- Everett Jay

-CSI(2001)- FBI agent Beckman, in episode Ellie

-Angel(2001-2003)- Gavin Park

-Charmed(2001)- Yen Lo, in episode Enter the Dragon

-Cradle 2 the Grave(2003)- Visiting Expert

-Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven(2003)- Rikimaru(video game)

-Hulk(2003)- Aide

-Ride or Die(2003)- Miyako
-24(2002-2004)- Tom Baker
-Sin(2003)- Lakom
-Momentum(2003)- Agent Frears
-Star Trek:Enterprise(2003-2004)- MACO Corporal Chang

-Spider-Man 2(2004)- Raymond

-Lost(2004-2010)- Jin-Soo Kwon

-Crash(2004)- Park

-The Cave(2005)- Kim

-Saints Row(2006)- Johnny Gat(video game)
-Justice League Unlimited(2006)- Metron, in episodes Alive and Destroyer
-Avatar: The Last Airbender(2006)- Gen. Fong, in episode The Avatar State
-The Slanted Screen(2006)-Narrator

-The Andromeda Strain(2008)- Dr. Tsi Chou

-The Onion Movie(2008)- Rich Ivy League Frat Brother
-Saints Row 2(2008)- Johnny Gat

-Hawaii Five-O(2010)-Chin Ho Kelly

-G.I. Joe: Renegades(2011)- Teddy Lee

-The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra(2012) Hiroshi Sato
-Saints Row:The Third(2011)- Johnny Gat

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Asian Stereotypes

I know I have said time and time again that anything racist or discriminatory, I hate. Well I do. As far as I'm concerned, we're all the same underneath. We just come in different packages and that's what makes us unique.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_East_Asians_in_the_Western_world
Here are some very rude and I mean VERY RUDE stereotypes about the kind Asian people of our world.

Asians are considered to be the perpetual foreigner

Shown as model minority, which is a very GOOD thing. They are seen as hardworking, studious, politically inactive, intelligent, productive and inoffensive people who raise their social standing through good will and merit.

2 negative stereotypes of Asians include laziness and criminal tendencies

An example of the intelligence stereotype is: 25.2% of Asian Americans over 25 hold a Bachelor's Degree compared to 15.5% of general American population.

An example of the criminal tendency includes the recent Virginia Tech Massacre. The shooter was a Korean teen named Seung-Hui Cho. In 2007, Asians were implicated in cheating scandals, shooting sprees and political corruption.

When it comes to stories, there comes to mind 2 characters, Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan

Fu Manchu is a stereotypical 'evil Asian' created by 2 white authors, Sax Rohmer and Earl Derr Biggs. Fu Manchu was supposed to be an intelligent, yet evil Chinese murderer with dreams of world domination.Sax Rohmer tied many stereotypes to this character, including using East Asian methods of death or torture, such as death by silk rope.

Charlie Chan was the stereotypical Chinese -Hawaiian detective based on real Chinese-Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. This character handles cases that involve many racist insults being thrown at him by white American characters. But the funny thing is that not one actual Asian actor ever played Charlie, it has always been played by white British actors, or white actors in general, such as Warner Oland, Sidney Toler and Roland Winter. And Charlie always spoke with accented English, almost to suggest that Asians had difficulty with the English language.

Stereotypes of Asian Men

Emasculation and Asexuality

In the 1800s, Chinese did what most people on the West coast would call 'women's work', meaning child care, cooking, laundry

Also the Chinese laborers wore their hair in long braids behind their heads(queues), sported long silk gowns or martial arts-looking clothes.

Many Chinese were barred from getting any job except women's work kind of jobs because Chinese were seen as an economic threat.

In Hollywood movies, sometimes Asians will be seen as supergeeks, like that of Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles, or in 2001, Romeo Must Die. There was to be a scene at the end of the movie where Jet Li's Han Sing was supposed to share a romantic kiss with Aaliyah's Trish O'Day, but it was cut from the movie because some Asian people thought it would be bad to portray an Asian man in a sexual light.

Predators to white women

In many American made movies, Asians have been shown as predators to white women. Like for example, in the 1916 movie Patria, a group of fanantical Japanese invaders invade the US to rape a white woman. Who's idea was this anyways??? Another example is the movie The Bitter Tea of General Yen, which shows the supposed power an Oriental person would have over a white woman.

Misogynists aka Chauvinists

Most of the time, Asian men will be shown as misogynists or chauvinists, meaning they treat women disrespectfully. The book the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, even though it was praised by many people, some still say it portrays certain Asian stereotypes. How? It's about a Chinese family growing up in San Francisco

Changing Perceptions

Most of the stereotypes against Asians have been a little relaxed. Nowadays, you see Asians almost everywhere, in movies, like Jet Li, Chow Yun-fat, Lucy Liu or Michelle Yeoh, on TV, like B.D. Wong, Daniel Dae-Kim, Masi Oka, Brenda Song.

Asian Women

Hypersexuality and the Dragon Lady

Asian women will be shown as opportunistic, manipulative, aggressive sexual beings or predatory gold diggers. It always seems that Western film and TV may portray these stereotypes more prominently than elsewhere.

More stereotypes:

China Doll/Geisha Girl/Lotus Flower/Servant- submissive, docile, obedient, reverential

Vixen/Sex Nymph- sexy, coquettish, manipulative

Prostitute/Victim of Sex Trade- helpless, good natured, heart of gold

Physical Attributes and Traits

TV and film show Asians as people with having an epicanthic fold- positively called 'almond shaped' or negatively called 'slant eye' eyes, having yellow toned or brown skin, having a stereotypical haircut- boys: bowl cut, straight dark, girls: overgrown bangs.

Another one is Asians will be the person who everyone assumes can do martial arts like a pro, basically the martial arts expert, having difficulty with the English language, and often being short in stature, not being very tall. But there are some Asian people who break that stereotype, like Chow Yun-fat, who's a Chinese born actor who is 6'1, or Ken Watanabe, a Japanese born actor who is 6'1.

Media stereotypes

Many TV shows/films may have a stereotype or 2 about someone, and I have noticed something-- when it comes to stereotypes, it's always America that seems to be the stereotype creator. Here are some of the more prominent Asian stereotypes in the media:

First of all, the term Asian American doesn't just cover China, Japan. It can cover any country in Asia, such as India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Korea, etc.

Another one is that all Asians act and look alike.

In movies, Asian men will almost always be shown as waiters, cooks, servants, laundry workers, gangsters, nerds, villains or martial arts experts. And they speak with heavy accented English. Luckily for me, I don't think that. What kind of girl who watches anything with Jet Li in it or Chow Yun-fat in it would think that and also find these 2 really sexy???

A long time ago, in movies when Asian characters were needed, an American actor/actress would often go to makeup to have their eyes taped into position to give them a look of Chinese heritage or Japanese heritage and also wear makeup to darken or lighten their skin tone to a yellowish color or tan color. And in the Charlie Chan movies, what really didn't make sense was that his character's wife and all the children of his in the movies were all actually Asian in ancestry.

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/psy457_tizzle/asian_american_men

Nowadays, Asians fall under these categories:

Dangerous, evil, villains. Asians can be shown as villains who are also masters of martial arts and will use it to get their point across. An example is the character Wah Sing Ku, played by Jet Li, in Lethal Weapon 4. The main 2, a white actor and black actor, both together kill Jet Li's character, Mel Gibson's character fights with him underwater and drives a metal rod thru him and finds an AK-47 there from one of other dead gangsters and shoots him, to suggest overcoming evil. Asian communities, like Chinatown, will be shown as a den for gambling, drug trafficking, prostitution, and gang wars.

Unaccultured and Unfriendly Individuals. On the TV show Heroes, Japanese actor Masi Oka plays Hiro Nakamura, a level 3 programmer at Yamagato Industries in Tokyo, Japan, who one day discovers how to manipulate time and space. He uses it for good, and his character speaks very little English, but over the course, speaks more. Another example is Daniel Dae-Kim's character on the show LOST. He plays Jin Kwon, who is stranded on an island with other passengers on a plane that crashed. His character speaks only Korean, suggesting he can't speak English, and shows no attempt to talk to the other passengers, suggesting he is mean in nature. His character is an unfortunate example of how Asians are "supposed" to act in a crowd: untalkative, unfriendly, rude, unhelpful

Masters of Martial Arts. Ever since the 1970s, Bruce Lee was the first Asian to break into the American movie scene, with his Kung-Fu skills. He was strong, muscular, good looking and in the movies, sometimes involved him beating up someone white. In the children's game Parappa the Rappa, he learns Kung Fu from a very old man. There are many stereotypes present here, such as the old man speaking in heavily accented gibberish, mocking the sounds of Chinese language, the old man speaking in poor English, teaching the character Parappa how to use martial arts

Undesirable Male Partners. Most Asian males would be shown as someone who are not capable of finding love with in their own ethnic group. There are hardly any films or anything in the media portraying an Asian male in a relationship with a white woman or someone else. But slowly but surely, this is changing. On the HBO show Entourage, the character Lloyd is Asian, but also homosexual, loud, talkative and funny. And a cool thing is that some of our favorite actors and actresses and entertainers may just be part Asian and will not look it, with the eye shape or whatever. They may have Asian ancestors but not look Asian. Some of those people include: