From: gwu@nujoizey.tcs.com (George Wu)
Subject: Re: Year of the Dragon (Re: Asian American Media Image)
Keywords: good movie, 2 thumbs up!
Organization: Teknekron Communications Systems Inc.
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 01:05:41 GMT

In article <1992Jul20.195839.20156@leland.Stanford.EDU>, underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:
>
> There's an interesting show that accurately depicts the mentality
> of a large portion of the Asian-American community although the events
> in the show are fictional.  I'm referring to "Year of the Dragon".

     Asian-American community?  Spit it out Joe, I know you're dying
to.  It's the Chinese-American community you're out to villify, which
is not portrayed at all in this film.

     "Year of the Dragon" hardly portrays "a large portion of the Asian-
American community."  It hardly portrays a minority of the Chinese-
American community.  It is a fictional account of the criminal element
within the Chinese-American community.  Even if it were accurate, a
point I deny, it would be a portrayal of the criminal element of the
Chinese-American community.  I challenge you to post *facts* showing
the majority of the Chinese-American community is involved in violent
crime.

> It's very good.  I highly recommend it.  A person who's actually been
> in one of the ethnic towns depicted in this movie will immediately
> recognize how very accurately the ethnic milieu has been contructed.
> The mentality of the portrayed ethnic group and its villains is very
> realistic.

     And what mentality is that, pray tell?

> Three of the best parts in the movie are the following.  The principal
> antagonist, head of an organized crime gang, answers the questions of
> the (protagonist) reporter in a way that strongly implies that she
> should protect her "own" people.  This occurs just after the other
> protragonist, the cop played by Mickey Rourke, orders a crack on the
> ethnic town.  The reporter initially has a slight preference in favor
> of her own cultural group.
> 
> In the second of the two best parts, she realizes the truth in a
> most unfortunate and brutal way.  Three jerks from her own cultural
> group gang-rape her to stop her from making any more annoying comments
> about the antagonist.  She later confronts the cop and tells him that
> she can no longer report about the antagonist.  The cop demands to
> know why.  She says that 3 boys--3 from her 'own' cultural group--raped
> her.  At the end of the movie, she passes the rubicon and defies
> the threats of cultural group.  She bluntly and defiantly reports
> about the criminal stench in that ethnic town.
> 
> In addition, a smaller protagonist--a college-age youth--from the
> same cultural background as the reporter finally blurts out to
> the cop and his colleague, "No more ethnic jokes about 'my' people.
> Thousands of years ago, they had an advanced civilization.  They
> gave 'you' guys the orange, the irrigation system, etc."  This is a
> poignant point in the movie.  The youth doesn't realize what century
> he's in.  He also doesn't realize what kind of people he's defending.
> Working in concert with the cop, he tries to nab the antagonist by
> working as a spy in an ethnic restaurant.  The antagonist discovers
> the truth and orders him to be silenced.  As the youth is leaving the
> restaurant, a boy from the same cultural group which he defends
> walks behind him and shoots the protagonist several times--point blank.  The
> cop runs up to the injured youth and holds him--a gaping wound is visible
> in the side of the cheek which a bullet pierced.  The youth dies in the
> cop's arms.  Only upon his death bed does the youth realize the truth
> about the culture that he defended so vehemently earlier.
> 
> evaluation:  3 stars out of 4
> siskel-and-ebert evaluation:  2 thumbs up

     What Dwight Joe's hoping you'll fall for, and what the Chinese-
American community has criticized the film for, is the incorrect portrayal
that the Chinese-American community as violent and overrun with organized
crime, at worst, and otherwise complacent to let criminals control their
society.

     I suggest the reader substitute Dwight Joe's use of "ethnic group"
and other thinly veiled references to Chinese-Americans, with Vietnamese-
Americans, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Latin-Americans, and
African-Americans.  I suggest the reader then consider the people (s)he
has known from all four of these groups and consider just how fair Dwight
Joe and the film's portrayal of any particular cultural group could be.


							George

----
George J Wu, Software Engineer         | gwu@tcs.com or uunet!tcs!gwu
Teknekron Communications Systems, Inc. | (510) 649-3700
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