Yellowface in Cinema: How bad does it get?

Note: I won't be including any of the very early 1930s/1940s Charlie Chan, Bela Lugosi etc. versions of this unfortunate tropes, mainly because I haven't seen enough to judge. 

Jennifer Jones, Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)

Context: Hollywood Golden Age star Jennifer Jones was nominated for an Oscar for playing Han Suyin, an Eurasian doctor in Hong Kong opposite William Holden's American correspondent, in this fairly formulaic 50s romance.

How bad is it?: The makeup used on Jones isn't that heavy as far as 'yellowface' prosthetics are concerned, and to be fair the role of Han is given grace and dignity by the writing. On the whole, however, it is a fairly simplistic portrayal of an Asian character, the questionable casting is still questionable, and moreover the film surrounding it is just excessively bland.

The Alternative: Given that William Holden, already a big name in Hollywood, was the lead, I'm sure they could've afforded to cast a slightly less known Asian actress in the role (though I doubt the film would've been any good regardless).

John Wayne, The Conqueror (1956)

Context: In the same year he made the racially questionable yet nevertheless critically acclaimed and iconic The Searchers, Wayne took on the even more questionable role in an altogether questionable film as he played Mongolian chieftain Genghis Khan in this ill-fated epic.

How bad is it?: Hey, at least Wayne doesn't try doing an Asian accent. This is more or less just Wayne doing his usual thing with some casually thrown on yellowface, and much less comfort in the role than his usual Westerns.

The Alternative: The film was a bad idea to begin with, probably best that it never got made.

Curd Jürgens and Robert Donat, The Inn of Sixth Happiness (1958)

Context: The first actually decent film on this list, following Gladys Aylward (Ingrid Bergman) a British missionary in China as she encounters a dashing Chinese military captain and a wise old Mandarin, played by the very German Curd Jürgens and the very British Robert Donat.

How bad is it?: I don't mind Donat's performance, plus it was the final performance of a great actor so I can't hate on it that much. He still dons the usual sort of makeup and facial hair associated with the stereotypes of the wise old Chinaman, but it's a dignified portrayal of a good and kindhearted, if simplistic, character that avoids any of the yellow peril tropes. Jürgens, unfortunately, is a bit of a bore in this, and I'd have much rather an actual Asian actor play his role.

The Alternative: Richard Loo would've been a good choice for Jürgens' role.

Mickey Rooney, Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Context: A side character in Truman Capote's source material exploited to full 'comedic' effect by Mickey Rooney and Blake Edwards.

How bad is it?: Absolutely dreadful. No words needed.

The Alternative: It would've been a bad character even if played by an Asian actor. Just excise it out, it's a shame because it does hamper an otherwise somewhat charming film.

Henry Silva, The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Context: Pretty small role in the grand scheme of the plot, but the character of Chinese henchman Chunjin was played by the ery much Caucasian Henry Silva.

How bad is it?: It's basically a white guy playing a role that seems like it should have just cast an Asian character actor/stuntman in the role. It doesn't stand out too badly though and the rest of the film is pretty great.

The Alternative: As I said, it's such a minor role that surely just casting an Asian actor in the role surely wouldn't have hurt, especially considering that the film had Oscar-nominees Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury, and superstar Frank Sinatra, in the leads.

Peter Sellers, Murder by Death (1974)

Context: Basically a parody of the 30s/40s practice of having white guys playing Charlie Chan and an array of other Asian characters.

How bad is it?: It's a parody, not the most nuanced of parodies but a parody nevertheless, and Peter Sellers does a good job of selling it. I wouldn't consider this a bad example of yellowface as it's kind of taking the piss out of yellowface to begin with.

The Alternative: Honestly can't fault this, it's a spoof of a whodunnit and Sellers is basically doing a Chinese Clouseau. This probably wouldn't fly nowadays but for its time it's fine (I think).

Max von Sydow, Flash Gordon (1980)

Context: Emperor Ming is basically a parody of Fu Manchu, and this delightful if somewhat dated Technicolor cinematic frenzy amps it up several notches with the one-of-a-kind Swedish actor moving from his Ingmar Bergman roots, chilling villains and serious priests to play an extremely over-the-top VILLAIN.

How bad is it?: I don't mind this, despite technically being 'yellowface', as Ming is pretty much an Asian carciature in appearance only, which is in turn a reference to the original space opera comics. Sydow doesn't really do an Asian accent or anything, he's just really hamming it up as a villain, Raoul Julia in Street Fighter style, and it's entertaining and not really offensive I'd say since Ming is basically an alien entity.

The Alternative: John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China, a film I adore, rectified this a few years later by casting James Hong in a similar sort of over-the-top villainous role to great effect.

Linda Hunt, The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)

Context: Hunt won an Oscar for her portrayal of a Chinese-Australian dwarf and contact for Mel Gibson's journalist, Billy Kwan, who witness and cover the overthrow of President Sukarno against the backdrop of 1960s Indonesia.

How bad is it?: Ugh, this is the toughest one for me to cover. This is a great performance, no doubt, as Hunt grants such depth, pathos, humour and tragedy to a brilliantly written character and his plight. But I'd have loved for it to have been played by an actual Chinese actor. But considering how difficult the casting process must have been...I don't know. I really don't know. The quality of the performance, and the film, itself is unquestionably strong, even if the casting choice is somewhat questionable.

The Alternative: Eh, I can't speak for Peter Weir and his production team at all. They went with their gut feeling and it turned into an Academy Award-winning performance. Who's to say. And anyway, fast forward two more years and you had Haing S. Ngor winning an Oscar in the same category for a not altogether different kind of character and performance in The Killing Fields.

Eddie Murphy, Norbit (2006)

Context: In classic late 90s, early 2000s fashion Murphy took on multiple roles in this critical failure and box-office success, including a yellowface role as Mr. Hangten Wong, the kindly owner of an orphanage where the titular character (Murphy), his love interest (Thandie Newton) and his possessive wife (Murphy again) grew up in.

How bad is it?: Well this is certainly no The Nutty Professor as Murphy's multiple characters end up being fair more obnoxious than entertaining or endearing. Funnily enough, Mr. Wong is probably the least offensive caricature in the film, sure the yellowface is outrageous, but the character is far less demeaning than Murphy's career-low portrayal of the overweight, overwrought and mean-spirited Rasputia Latimore. So yeah, it's bad, but it's not even the most offensive case of racial stereotyping in the film.

The Alternative: Going off-topic a bit, I really hope Eddie Murphy makes a comeback at some point. Haven't been the biggest fan of most of his recent stuff but his 80s output involved some of my favourite comedies of all-time.

The Neo-Seoul Section, Cloud Atlas (2012)

Context: In this time-bending, genre-bending and sweeping epic, six timelines intertwine with one another with actors playing characters across a broad spectrum of personalities, ethnicities, and genders. I could write all day about the various facets of the film in this regard, but most notable is the use of 'yellowface' in the Neo-Seoul section on the actors Jim Sturgess, James D'Arcy, and Hugo Weaving, among others, to play Koreans.

How bad is it?: Okay, this film has something of a justified reason for this particular use. However, I have to say that I would personally have preferred that they cast an Asian lead for Jim Sturgess' character in this section (who could also possibly play the role of Adam Ewing in the first section). Having said that, I understand why they went the direction they did, and while the makeup was distracting in parts, I did think that on the whole it wasn't overly offensive, and James D'Arcy's is in particular rather decent. I do think it is one of the weaker sections of a strong film, though.

The Alternative: Casting an Asian actor in the role of Hae-Joo Chang and having him, like Doona Bae, play a wide range of nationalities across the other timelines.

Ben Kingsley, Iron Man 3 (2013)

Context: Sir Ben plays one of Iron Man's most (in) famous villains, a Chinese megalomaniac villain hell-bent on apparently taking over the Western World or something...who ends up being just a decoy villain, a terrorist persona used to mask the real mastermind and played by a drunkard Brit by the name of Trevor Slattery.

How bad is it?: It's a great stroke of writing by Shane Black, and honestly if the film had been backed up by a stronger villain I think it would've been much more acclaimed. I think this is an instance where Black rides the fine line brilliantly between being a caricature and being a menacing villain, as he is aware of his casting choice and uses it to subvert the racist notions of the original character. MCU did a similar thing with the character of Wong in Doctor Strange by changing him from a simplistic manservant to something more of a drill sergeant sort of character.

The Alternative: I mean, it'd have been quite something to see Kingsley play the full-blown villain we thought he'd be. Alternately, I think James Hong would have absolutely killed this role.

Emma Stone, Aloha (2015)

A year before her acclaimed great performance in La La Land and a year after her acclaimed great performance in Birdman, there was this. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever see this Emma Stone portayal of a one quarter Chinese and one quarter Hawaiian descent woman. So uh...yeah. At least they didn't try to make her look or sound Asian in any way...but yeah. They could have, you know...yeah.