LogFAQs > #976906571

Gremlynn posted...

Hearing an Asian name and predicting a character archetype says more of the audience than it does the content.

Fuck that noise. I've been watching Asian cinema since I was 6 years old.

I wanted Yanagita to be a character who was treated decently, but I knew from the phone call that he wouldn't be. There's nothing off about the initial call. It's just one friend contacting another to congratulate them. But I had a suspicion where they were going with the character and they confirmed it quickly.

Ask yourself this, why did the creepy friend need to be Japanese? The cast is 95% White. Why did the one character of Asian descent have to be the creepy friend from school who lived with his parents and lied about a sob story to try and steal another man's wife? I'm not saying that the Coen Brothers are prejudiced. But that doesn't mean that they can't still play into stereotypes. A lot of the time, what feels right for a character can be playing into a stereotype. And it can be done without even knowing it. That film was more of a symptom of a greater problem at the time.