James Shigeta, June 17, 1927 - July 28, 2014

image source: NBC News

Earlier this week, actor James Shigeta passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 85 (some news sources listed his age at 81).

Mr. Shigeta's best known and biggest role was as Wang Ta in the film "Flower Drum Song". As I wrote when I shared his obituary from the Los Angeles Times on my Facebook page, Mr. Shigeta's role left a deep impression on me. It was the first time I ever saw Asian Americans speaking without exaggerated Asian accents.

"The Joy Luck Club" and "Flower Drum Song" were among the few Asian Ameican films that have had any mainstream success in the US. Which is why most of Mr. Shigeta's career after "Flower Drum Song" were mostly in support roles such as "Die Hard" and "Midway".

For cinephile and/or Asian American culture geeks, there are 2 documentaries that discuss this issue: Arthur Dong's "Hollywood Chinese" (September 10, 2012 blog entry), and San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi's "The Slanted Screen" (May 21, 2006 blog entry). I highly recommend them.

Hollywood Chinese - update

In April 2008, I wrote about a fascinating documentary I saw at the Sundance Kabuki called "Hollywood Chinese", directed by Arthur Dong. As Wikipedia describes it, "Dong utilizes clips of more than 100 films and interviews of prominent Chinese Americans to create a thorough overview in the depiction of Chinese in mainstream Hollywood films."

I have since seen Hollywood Chinese at least 3 times. In May, 2009, PBS's American Masters aired the documentary. Above is a YouTube preview. Please note the embedded link is disabled. To watch the preview, click the link and you will be taken directly to YouTube.

Hollywood Chinese

Last night, I went to go see Arthur Dong's documentary, "Hollywood Chinese" at the Sundance Kabuki.

As an avid art house film goer, trivia geek and American of Chinese ancestry, this was my kid-in-a-candy-shop kind of film. In general, I find documentaries fascinating and very informative. What made this film standout was the history of Chinese and Chinese-Americans in Hollywood cinema.

This included the "first" official Hollywood film featuring Chinese-Americans, pioneer Anna May Wong, and extremely insightful and candid interviews from a who-who's list of Chinese in cinema that included: Tsao Chin, Lisa Lu, Nancy Kwan, James Hong, Amy Tan, Wayne Wang, Ang Lee, Justin Lin, B.D. Wong and Joan Chen.

As discussed in Jeff Adachi's "The Slanted Screen" (2006), the documentary touched upon the not so positive portrayals of Asians in cinema. But "Hollywood Cinema" goes further. It points out the strong, prominent roles native Chinese such as Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li and Jackie Chan have gotten in recent years. American born actors such as Michael Wong (Russell's brother), Lee-Hom (Alexander) Wang, and Maggie Q had to go to Asia to get the meaty roles they were unable to get at home.

Had I been born and raised in California, I think my calling would have been in film. Since I wasn't, documentaries like "Hollywood Chinese" fulfill for me "what could be".

photo courtesy of DeepFocus Productions