POTENTIAL SPOILER: Are the only Asians in this Film Stock Characters and Extras?

Rating: 8/10 (4 June 2005)

I won't rehash the plot since others have already done so. Although I applaud the film for its frank approach to racism, I can't help but feel that the Asian characters were treated in a very cursory and shallow manner. There is no fully-realized and complex Asian character in a film that supposedly looks at a broad spectrum of cultures that make up contemporary Los Angeles. We get a shrill "dragon lady" stereotype with broken English and a mild-mannered Korean man who has barely two lines in the entire film and turns out to be a snake-head/human trafficker. . . And don't tell me the insurance guy counts. Paul Haggis, I commend you for your work, but if you wish to have Asian characters in a film about race relations, please take the time and effort to create someone with depth, feeling, and all the complexities of your competing characters.