Crazy Rich Asians, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Everything Everywhere All At Once are movie names that you have probably heard before. They are just three of many successful Asian American movies in recent years. This article will go deeper into the impact of these successes on the Asian community in America.
The Explosion Of Asian American Representative Movies
The American film industry started around the end of the 19th century. However, it has always lacked room for Asian American representation. Only 5.9% of characters were Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs) in 1,300 popular movies between 2007 and 2019. Furthermore, only 29 of 1300 top films depicted an Asian lead or co-lead.
If there was no shadow of successful Asian-American movies in the past few decades, there has been a change recently. In the last five years, people have witnessed a rise in the number of successful Asian-American movies in the American film industry. For example, Crazy Rich Asians was a big shot in the film industry since it was the first major Hollywood film in 25 years with an all-Asian cast.
With its revolutionary breakthrough, Crazy Rich Asians came in at number 17 on the list of the top-grossing domestic film in 2018. Moreover, another Asian American representative movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings finished second on the list of the highest-grossing domestic movies in 2021. Then, the most recent top-grossing domestic film list included Everything everywhere all at once at number 15. Along with the high rankings, these movies also broke several records.
Although the number of Asian American movies is still relatively small, it is undeniable that these movies profoundly impact American society, especially the Asian American community.
Bringing Another Aspect Of The Asian American Life To Light
In the past, the American film industry depicted the Asian American community poorly. According to a study from 2019, 67% of API characters were stereotyped. The “Martial Artist” (an Asian trope), the “Model Minority” (an Asian trope), or the “Exotic Woman” were just a few examples of the tropes or stereotypes that at least a third of characters that identify as API represent.
On the bright side, recent successful Asian films stand out because they all present Asian Americans in innovative and creative ways. In Everything Everywhere All At Once, the audience joins Evelyn ¸— a middle-aged Asian American woman — on her way to changing and accepting novel aspects of herself. From a stereotyped Asian woman, conservative and old-fashioned, she liberates herself and becomes a free spirit. In Crazy Rich Asians, Rachel Chu, a Chinese-American girl, impresses the audience with her profound resistance to pursuing her academic pathway and defining herself.
These films put Asian characters in a new dimension and display various novel aspects of their personalities, which were missing in other precedented films. For the first time, Asian characters are depicted in multi-universes. For the first time, Asian characters become a superhero in the Marvel universe.
“The way they illustrate the Asian representation novelly and uniquely is the main contributor to the booming success of these movies. The audience doesn’t find understanding new cultures boring or plain as they did with old movies,” Duy Vu, a rising senior with a Media Production major at Villanova University, stated in an interview with Balance Now.
These changes in producing Asian American movies have shown advanced progress in renewing, recreating, and propagating Asian American representation truthfully and interestingly. They are breaking the long-existing images of Asian Americans and creating brand-new and fresh photos.
The Affirmation Of Recognition for Asian Actors
Even though there aren’t many films about Asian Americans, these blockbuster movies have laid a strong foundation for future Asian American representation in the film. All the broken records proved the public’s appreciation of Asian actors. Additionally, they have demonstrated Asian actors’ current and potential abilities in the direction of appeasing the tastes of the American audience.
In the future, the American cinema industry’s door is wide open for potentially successfully Asian American representative movies.
3 thoughts on “Asian American Representation In The Film Industry”