Asian actors too busy to fret over Hollywood 'white-washing'

TOKYO (AP) — The film world of Asia, known for producing Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Brillante Mendoza and other greats, is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood — the casting of white people in roles written for Asians.

While hurt, irritated or dumb-founded perhaps about the so-called "white-washing" syndrome, performers here aren't expressing the level of outrage of a Margaret Cho, George Takei or other Americans, The Associated Press has found.

Momoi praised the devotion, skill and professionalism of Scarlett Johansson, whose starring in "Ghost in the Shell," based on a Japanese manga, has stirred up an uproar as a prime example of "white-washing."

"Compared to Japan, there is so much potential and recognition in the U.S. for independent films," said Momoi in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.

[...] she was baffled when she learned a white actress was picked for the Asian role in a Hollywood movie she had auditioned for.

Vijay Varma, an India actor who starred in "Monsoon Shootout," a crime story with multiple endings that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, pointed out insularity was prevalent in Bollywood as well.

When an effort that defies boundaries turns out to be a great movie, like "Life of Pi," which starred an Indian actor, combined live action with computer graphics, and had a Taiwan-born director Ang Lee, "it feels really good," Varma said.

While some Japanese may wonder why Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is the heroine in "Memoirs of a Geisha," they also feel no qualms routinely casting Japanese to play Chinese and other non-Japanese Asian roles, feigning embarrassingly phony accents and mannerisms.

Koji Fukada's "Sayonara" starred Bryerly Long, an American, as a dying woman in Japan, but the film also starred a humanoid robot as her loyal companion.