2 more GIJOE movie casting announcements today. SCARLETT will be played by RACHEL NICHOLS and STORM SHADOW will be played by Korean actor BYUNG-HUN LEE. I've never seen any of their previous work, so I don't know if they have the acting chops to pull it off.However, I would like to point out that Hollywood seems against casting Japanese actors to portray JAPANESE characters. Storm Shadow, Thomas S. Arashikage, is Japanese. Its like with MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, where most of the actors were Chinese. Is there really that much of a shortage of good Japanese talent out there? Maybe Storm Shadow will be Korean... but that makes less sense since "Arashikage" and "Ninja" are Japanese. Sorry, but Ninjas aren't "an Asian thang"... its a Japanese thing.
But if Hollywood has taught us anything, its we "orientals" all look alike.
Wait, what was I posting on again? Oh yeah, GIJOE....
so with that said, based on visuals alone, I don't hate these choices. Rachel is apparently 5'10" so she'll have the physical presence and the beauty (she was Yahoo's Model of the Month in Sept 2000). Can she act? Dunno. She's in CHARLIE WILSON's WAR, so if anyone sees that, let us know how she is! Lee is apparently very popular right now in both Korea and Japan for his recent role in the Korean drama WINTER SONATA (anyone seen?). He also has the right slant in his eyes that I want to see with Storm Shadow. (Note: I am half-Japanese. That was a joke.)
So now we have casting for Baroness, Snake-Eyes , Scarlett and Storm Shadow. Come on GARY OLDMAN for COBRA COMMANDER!!!!
*Previous GIJOE movie post: GIJOE Movie Will Suck(source)
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5 comments:
I've been a fan of RACHEL NICHOLS since she took over during the final season of "Alias."
In a culture where being able to read into people's emotions because they are always hiding them to save face and not offend people around them, good acting comes few and far between simply because they aren't trained to express or read facial emotions.
Japanese also historically have a harder time sounding fluent in English probably because they only have 50 some odd sounds in their language where English has 400 or so.
I'm not into weightlifting, but I don't think you'll find many buffed out Japanese guys compared to Korean. They are just more sleight in stature.
In a movie like G.I. Joe and Memiors where the face of the character is going to be covered for a large amount of screen time, casting the best actor is probably the smart thing to do.
Just my 2cents.
yes, but then you get "japanese" characters running around acting like Chinese, like with Memoirs.
I understand what you're saying, tho.
Great comment post! Thanks!
True - and a very good point.
I think they are probably just thinking of their audience first and that means they are being geo-centric and only thinking of America. Historically it's a small minority of America (You and I being part of it.) that might actually "get" foreign actors/acting.
Go Hollywood Go.
So did this Japanese GI Joe character "act" Japanese in the cartoon?
Well, the cartoon was pretty much garbage anyway. The COMIC is the actual source material, and it ruled.
As for the whole Japanese actor thing... its not really a big deal, it just bugs me sometimes.
Besides, this movie is going to have sooooo much more problems to focus on and smash. :)
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