Interesting "puzzle," like M. Night Shyamalan films - but very anti-China/Chinese

Rating: Null/10 (26 January 2017)

I thought this was a good movie, for the most part. It had a nice story, fine cinematography, a cerebral "puzzle," moving moments, and decent acting. I thought this would be nominated for a few Academy Awards. This reminds me of M. Night Shyamalan films - sophisticated puzzles, a "think piece," a bit gimmicky.
Racism and stereotypes are rampant in most US films. Arrival is based on a short story by Ted Chiang. He's Chinese American, but none of his stories have ANYTHING Asian in them. In the film, they put in the usual "China-is-the-bad-guy" crap - nothing new. They ALSO decided to make the white woman the SAVIOR who reforms the evil Chinese general. That's as old as Hollywood itself. A similar film is Anna and the King (1999), where Jodie Foster, the mighty and attractive white woman, comes to save the day. She "reforms" the backwards, misogynist Thai king played by Chow Yun-Fat. White people fixing up bad, backwards Asians is as old as time itself. And it insinuates itself into EVERYTHING, not just films.
Basically, US films, including Arrival, loves hammering in this:
**White = good, right, almighty **Asian/Chinese = wrong, backwards, evil, exclude, look down on
In the short story that Arrival was based on, Chiang failed to have ANYTHING Asian in it. That's the way he thinks and operates - every one of his 15 stories only have WHITE PEOPLE. To be an Asian American and to ONLY have whites in ALL your stories - what does that mean?! He thinks he's white, only hangs out with whites, and is, basically, white. For some reason, the film deviated from the story in that they decided to throw in an evil Chinese general who's out to destroy the universe. Maybe the Quebecois director decided to throw that in, and it had the COMPLETE approval of Chiang.
Chiang's one of the plentiful Chinese Americans who hate China and anything Chinese. That's a given - we grew up in a country that really hates us, so we hate ourselves and try to get as far away from our ancestral roots as possible. Chiang even wrote a New Yorker article bashing Chinese characters and claiming it's far inferior to English and Indo-European languages. Okay!
The guy who played the Chinese general is some actor named Tsi Ma. He has a long & acclaimed career, though none of us have heard of him. Despite his authoritative presence in the film, you can see Amy Adams looks down on him. See her face as she faces him in the grand party scene - she loses her usual pretty look and just looks blah. She's seeing a plain, slant- eyed Chinese man, and she finds his look, and his self, unappealing. That sums up how all people see Chinese people - even those with illustrious careers & an authoritative presence.
Adams' Mandarin is absolutely atrocious in the film. It shows that she really doesn't like the Mandarin language, or Asian people. She doesn't BOTHER to want to learn to pronounce those few lines better. This reminds me of the time Emma Watson & Daniel Radcliffe spoke some Mandarin, and Watson butchered it in the most embarrassing way. That's because she, and most people, simply have no respect or love for the Chinese. If Adams was supposed to speak, say, a French line instead, she'd try harder to pronounce it better, because she subconsciously loves and respects French better than Chinese. That's because everyone reveres white/European culture, while looking down Chinese, at least subconsciously.
Also, I have no idea why Adams' character spoke Mandarin to the Chinese general on the phone, and then he spoke perfect English to her when they met. This shows that people think Chinese don't know any English. Leave it to the mighty white woman to bow down to the backwards Chinese by speaking (terrible) Mandarin - when pretty much all high-level leaders in the world speak FLUENT English, including, apparently, this general when they met in the ball scene. So if her Mandarin is bad, and his English is perfect, why does she speak her poor Mandarin to him on the phone?! It was so bad I didn't understand ONE word she said.
People who hated the film can point out a lot more plot holes besides this one. There are so many contradictions - the filmmakers really didn't have their head on straight.
In the short story, the daughter died of a rock climbing accident at age 25. But in the film, she died of cancer/leukemia as a young teen. It really would've been more interesting if they stuck with the short story on this one.
The love interest in the short story was named Gary, but in the film, they changed his name to Ian. I guess Gary doesn't sound sexy for a love interest these days. The story was written in 1998, and I'm not sure Gary even sounded sexy back then. But I don't think Chiang meant for him be sexy - he's a theoretical physicist, for heaven's sake. But in a film, you need cool, attractive characters, so Ian it is. Jeremy Renner might be considered attractive in an odd way, but he lacks charisma and presence. He seems really boring.
Adams looks young for 42, thanks to celebs' constant use of Botox. She has an enviable nose job that gives her a perfect front and profile view. I think she got the same plastic surgeon as Jennifer Connelly because they have very similar slim, pointy, perfect noses. Adams only rose to fame after her successful plastic surgery - like so many other actresses, e.g., Catherine Zeta- Jones, Nicole Kidman. No one looks this perfect without going under the knife