Monkey Comics
The other day I was watching Enter the Dragon on OCN. Bruce Lee was, by all accounts, a truly amazing human being. He was strong, smart, charismatic, sexy, loved by those who knew him, constantly pushing himself to new heights… in short, not merely a celebrity, but a bona fide legend.
This got me to thinking about the current depiction of Asian men in western cinema. It seems to me, and I’m willing to admit that I haven’t done any research to back this up, that we’ve fallen a long way since the era of Bruce Lee. How many Asian leading men are working in Hollywood? Why is it that Asian men in western movies are always nerdy, or effeminate, or talk funny?
Asian women are allowed to be sexy in American movies; arguably, they’ve been sexualized to the point where they’re not allowed to not be sexy, but that’s a point for another rant. Asian men? Not so much. I know, I know, Masi Oka was named one of the sexiest people in the world by People Magazine, but then again so was David Letterman.
I know I should be rooting for Masi because the two of us have the same geeky style, and if he’s one of the sexiest people in the world some of that glamor will inevitably rub off on me. I also know that he’s not just playing a geek on TV but has real life geek credentials. If I were choosing a movie star to sit down with, drink some bawls, and discuss whether the X-Wing Fighter or the VF-1 Valkyrie would win in a fight, it’d definitely be him.
On the other hand, if it’s a larger than life cinematic hero I’m after, it’d have to be Bruce.
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