Zhang Ziyi as Sayuri

#3 has Asians playing Asians. "Memoirs of a Geisha" (called "Sayuri" here in Japan) is a movie that is about Japanese, starring Chinese and written by Whites, almost the entire "Japanese" cast is non-Japanese. (In reality, Youki Kudoh, Suzuka Ohgo, and Watanabe are Japanese, while Zhang and Gong Li are Chinese and Michelle Yeoh is Malaysian of Chinese descent.)

This casting pissed off a lot of people, but not me. Japanese have been portraying other Asians for years now (Pat Morita & Mako - Koreans on MASH, Jack Soo - Chinese in Flower Drum Song, etcetera) all play the token Asian, depending on the role needed.) To paraphrase Sandra Oh (Korean-Canadian), "White actors are portraying those of European descent all the time and the only criticism is of their accents, not their ethnicity. So why not Asians playing Asians?)

Of course the Japanese and Chinese are annoyed with the actors portraying Japanese but that's a whole different issue!

Zhang as Sayuri and Michelle Yeoh as Mameha...








And here is Bobby Lee of MAD TV fame portraying Sayuri. (He's Korean, by the way.)



To check out the Japanese website for the movie, go here.