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[MAY]

?Ghost in the Shell? may have been doomed from the start because of the film?s whitewashing controversy, according to a Paramount executive.

The big budget movie, based on a film adaptation of a popular Japanese manga, flopped over the weekend earning just $19 million at the box office. Compare that to the film?s $110 million budget and Entertainment Weekly?s modest prediction that the movie would earn at least $30 million.

Critics didn?t think much of the movie either. ?Ghost in the Shell? earned 45 percent on the film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviewers saying the film lacked the magic of its source material.

An executive for Paramount, the studio behind the film, thinks that ?Ghost in the Shell? performed so poorly because of the casting controversy that trailed the movie for years. After it was announced in late 2014 that Scarlett Johansson, a white actress, would be taking on the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi, critics complained that Hollywood was once again whitewashing a role that an Asian actress could?ve played.

?We had hopes for better results domestically. I think the conversation regarding casting impacted the reviews,? Paramount domestic distribution chief Kyle Davies told CBC News.

?You?ve got a movie that is very important to the fanboys since it?s based on a Japanese anime movie,? Davies added. ?So you?re always trying to thread that needle between honoring the source material and make a movie for a mass audience. That?s challenging, but clearly the reviews didn?t help.?

Johansson defended the movie?s casting last week, saying that her character did not have an ethnic identity. Johansson told Good Morning America that her character is a ?human brain in an entirely machine body, she is essentially identity-less.?

?I would never attempt to play a person of a different race,? she added. ?Hopefully any question that comes up of my casting will hopefully be answered by audiences when they see the film.?

But her defense didn?t quell the larger issue of white actors being cast in Asian roles.

The Hollywood Reporter invited several Japanese-American actresses to watch and discuss the film?s casting controversy and they all agreed: Major?s backstory, which Johansson hinted at, appeared to be a thinly veiled attempt to justify whitewashing the character of Major Motoko Kusanagi.

?We?re looking at these beautiful white bodies saying these Japanese names, and it hurt my heart a little bit,? Keiko Agena, who?s starred in ?Gilmore Girls? and ?13 Reasons Why,? told The Hollywood Reporter.

?As a fan, as a human Asian-American, I want to see that star being born. That was the part that hurt,? Agena added. ?This is such a star-making vehicle. And they can find people ...this could have made a young, kick-ass Asian actress out there a Hollywood name and star.?

?The Ghost in the Shell? took third place on its opening weekend, falling behind ?The Boss Baby,? the animated film starring Alec Baldwin, which pulled in $49 million, and Disney?s highly anticipated remake of ?Beauty and the Beast? starring Emma Watson, which made $48 million (adding to its $395.5 million domestic total).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paramount-admits-ghost-in-the-shell-did-poorly-because-casting_us_58e486cbe4b0d0b7e1660b61

[MAY]

b @ the Asians fuming over their Anime characters being Whitewashed on film. Maybe should stop drawing them to look White in the first damn place.

[FlowerBomb]

I figured
Once I read the origins of the movie and saw it was originally Japanese...
And they had a white girl playing lead...

[Kurama]

[Gilgamesh.]

then maybe they should have cast Asian actors? n

[fedswatchin]

Ccccccccccvvfcc

[Opposites Attract.]

Then why make it in the first place? I just don't get white people. Did they not learn from that Egypt mess?

[Opposites Attract.]

b @ the Asians fuming over their Anime characters being Whitewashed on film. Maybe should stop drawing them to look White in the first damn place.

This too. Fuck them Chinks.

[Kurama]

b @ the Asians fuming over their Anime characters being Whitewashed on film. Maybe should stop drawing them to look White in the first damn place.

!!!

Colonialism fucked the world UP. This was a good interview. The same actress talked about Asian folks hating themselves: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/ghost-shell-4-japanese-actresses-dissect-movie-whitewashing-twist-990956

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.

Okatsuka: This is an important conversation to have.

Yoshihara: Even my ex-boyfriend, who is Asian American, said, ?What Asian lady has a body like Scarlett Johansson??

Agena: There are certain priorities there.

Okatsuka: It?s this weird thing where Asian Americans or Asian nationals living here like me, working in film, are fighting both our motherland and white producers here. We?re walking this in-between where I scream at Hollywood but I?m also like, ?Why?d you do that, Japan?!? Et tu, Brute, on both sides.

Yoshihara: Japanese people are self-loathing.

Okatsuka: Is it crazy that suicide rates are so high in Japan?

Yoshihara: Even my sister committed suicide. That?s how many people commit suicide in Japan. That?s how messed up it is.

Hollywood prides itself on being very progressive, very pro-diversity. One common defense of this movie is that it?s incredibly diverse.

Yoshihara: Yeah, a bunch of the Asian people got killed. All the minor roles are Asians who didn?t have lines. But all the core characters except Beat Takeshi and the mother were mainly white.

[MAY]

Asian people are a kii. The way they stay running behind Whites, turning their noses up at Blacks & Latinos until they get chopped downe. It's always funny to me when they get a dose of reality.

You're colored just like the rest of us.

[SouravMay]

I hate the concept of colored and non-colored. It washes down the struggle of the descendants of native Americans and black American slaves.

[United Nations Barbie 🇺🇳]

b @ the Asians fuming over their Anime characters being Whitewashed on film. Maybe should stop drawing them to look White in the first damn place.

[MAY]

b @ the Asians fuming over their Anime characters being Whitewashed on film. Maybe should stop drawing them to look White in the first damn place.

!!!

Colonialism fucked the world UP. This was a good interview. The same actress talked about Asian folks hating themselves: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/ghost-shell-4-japanese-actresses-dissect-movie-whitewashing-twist-990956

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.

Okatsuka: This is an important conversation to have.

Yoshihara: Even my ex-boyfriend, who is Asian American, said, ?What Asian lady has a body like Scarlett Johansson??

Agena: There are certain priorities there.

Okatsuka: It?s this weird thing where Asian Americans or Asian nationals living here like me, working in film, are fighting both our motherland and white producers here. We?re walking this in-between where I scream at Hollywood but I?m also like, ?Why?d you do that, Japan?!? Et tu, Brute, on both sides.

Yoshihara: Japanese people are self-loathing.

Okatsuka: Is it crazy that suicide rates are so high in Japan?

Yoshihara: Even my sister committed suicide. That?s how many people commit suicide in Japan. That?s how messed up it is.

Hollywood prides itself on being very progressive, very pro-diversity. One common defense of this movie is that it?s incredibly diverse.

Yoshihara: Yeah, a bunch of the Asian people got killed. All the minor roles are Asians who didn?t have lines. But all the core characters except Beat Takeshi and the mother were mainly white.

OOP! I'm glad they are finally being honest about how they worship Whites. It's so obvious, but when called out they try to deny it all day.

[Eternal Bell]

vhds

it flop?

mess

[fedswatchin]

Asian people are a kii. The way they stay running behind Whites, turning their noses up at Blacks & Latinos until they get chopped downe. It's always funny to me when they get a dose of reality.

You're colored just like the rest of us.

i've seen you make this same post before
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