'Ghost in the Shell': 4 Japanese Actresses Dissect the Movie and Its Whitewashing Twist
How did the movie compare with your expectations?
Traci Kato-Kiriyama: It was stunning visually, but emotionally it didn’t draw me in.
Keiko Agena: It was harder to watch than I thought it was gonna be. To get emotionally invested, you have to really care that she needs to find out who she is. But when she finally meets her mom, my gut felt so weird in that moment.
Kato-Kiriyama: That scene was devastating on all levels. It got me because of the emotion of the mother [veteran Japanese actress Kaori Momoi]. She’s really wonderful. That scene should have been beautiful, but Major had nothing in her eyes. Acting-wise, what a missed moment.
Atsuko Okatsuka: I wasn’t aware they were gonna explain the whitewashing. I thought it was just going to be an action film, no explanation, just go with the fact that it’s a future Japan with this robot cop. And then to be like, “Oh shit, I used to be a Japanese woman!” (Laughter) That was against my expectations.
How did you feel when that twist was revealed?
Agena: That was hard, y’all. Hard and awkward.
Ai Yoshihara: Major’s backstory is white people trying to justify the casting.
Okatsuka: And they f—ed up in the process because now it looks even worse. The text at the beginning of the movie explained that Hanka Robotics is making a being that’s the best of human and the best of robotics. For some reason, the best stuff they make happens to be white. Michael Pitt used to be Hideo.
Agena: That was the other cringe-worthy moment, when they called each other by their Japanese names. We’re looking at these beautiful white bodies saying these Japanese names, and it hurt my heart a little bit.
Kato-Kiriyama: It was supposed to be so touching and intimate, and it felt gross. And kind of laugh-worthy at the same time.
Okatsuka: I would have preferred them just using American names. “You used to be Bob.”
When THR interviewed Japanese fans about the whitewashing claims, they weren’t bothered by it, and neither was Mamoru Oshii, who directed the 1995 anime version. How do you feel about their response?
Yoshihara: People in Japan worship white people.
Kato-Kiriyama: Even in the story, there are Japanese people involved in creating these beings and they also may very well see the ideal human being as a white woman. So you’re sort of messed up all the way around.
Agena: Yes! I felt more messed up watching this movie. It reinforced my own personal messed-up standards of physical beauty.
SAY IT AGAIN FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK. SAY IT A-FUCKING-GAIN.
#this is so real #this is so fucking real#i am SO DEEPLY UPSET about Ghost in The Shell #SO SO SO DEEPLY UPSET#what a travesty#this is everything wrong about Hollywood and the gross racist mistreatment of Asian people and Asian roles#it is literally such a huge fucking problem#and white people go and ask Japanese people how they feel#not acknowledging the EXTREME colorism and racism perpetuated in Japanese society#you know! the colorism racism that has been FORCED ON THE ENTIRE WORLD BY WHITE COLONIALISTS????#it isn’t something that’s just /natural/ that just /happened/#it was forcible violent coercive colonialism that wrought it all#and now people dont even want to acknowledge that people in Japan idealize white beauty standards like the rest of the world does because#of global white hegemony and inescapable white eurocentric beauty standards#paleness isnt enough! Asian people are LITERALLY MUTILATING THEIR BODIES with eye opening surgery and other such cosmetic manipulation#to fit white beauty standards#and its particularly bad in Asia! anyone who has been to any Asian country knows just how bad#in Burma i saw billboards of paaaale Asian people BEING LITERALLY WHITEWASHED#by a decal of a man holding a paint roller AND WHITENING OVER THE SKIN#and it was labeled as /become more beautiful this way/ #literally white = beauty#they LITERALLY are selling skin bleaches and there is a HUGE MARKET FOR IT#anyway #fuck this shit fuck this shit so fucking hard#these beauty standards are so toxic and ubiquitous that they aren’t even challenged#they’re just /the way things are/#and most people in most Asian countries aren’t wiser to it#there isn’t the same kind of awareness and activism that there is here#there isn’t that luxury! #social progress like we make in the States
tags from @element-of-change
