Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

Its heart is in the right place, but as a documentary, this is simply awful. The research into this important subject by the filmmakers was incredibly shallow, and what's presented is completely unfocused. I think there was more time spent on high school level history summaries and the shameful Japanese-American internment during WWII than a critical examination of Hollywood's treatment of Asians. There are so many films and actors not covered here that it was frankly irritating, and for the ones that are, the analysis provided by Nancy Wang Yuen and Joseph McBride is cursory at best, inaccurate at worst. A broader set of experts was needed, as well as critical thinking from directors Clara and Julia Kuperberg about what to include and what to challenge.

Even the timeline is badly spliced together, e.g. Going back to a Pre-Code picture (The Bitter Tea of General Yen) after talking sloppily about what Production Code enforcement meant, or going back to the 50's for a couple of Sam Fuller pictures after the stock footage of Vietnam war protests in the 60's. It jumps forward and closes with Alan Parker's Come See the Paradise (1990) seemingly because of the interview with Tamlyn Tomita, and the then-unreleased Crazy Rich Asians, in what seemed like excessive attention for both.

The movie footage that we occasionally see appeared to consist entirely from trailers, making me wonder if the filmmakers simply didn't have the rights to more. Regardless, this is as messy as a poorly executed student project, one that was thrown together and incomplete when it was due, as much as it pains me to say that. It's a subject a care deeply about, so this was very disappointing. Anyway, there are far better films and books about this subject, and I would look around instead of spending the time here.

The documentary's research was incredibly shallow, with no focus. Many, many films not even discussed here at the expense of some high-school history lesson. The documentary wanders off the main topic of Hollywood's treatment of Asians. The commentary by Nancy Wang Yuen and Joseph McBride is cursory, and Yuen's comments are totally inaccurate. She's more interested in making sound bites than a real analysis.

The historical perspective is also sloppy, especially the discussion of the Production Code and its issue of miscegenation. That only applied to Black/White relations, but for some reason Yuen says it includes Asian/White relations which it does not. Looks like she twists the "facts" to support her own agenda. The documentary closes with Alan Parker's Come See the Paradise in 1990 perhaps because Japanese actress Tamlyn Tomita was available.

Overall, a mess. Look elsewhere.

Watched this hour-long documentary via TCM and found it interesting as well as lacking. Some of the movies I was familiar with (Breakfast at Tiffany's) and others I was not (The Crimson Kimono, Sayonara, et al.), but the film veered off into an odd direction midway through to discuss the camps for the Japanese during WW2 but failed to talk to George Takei, who was actually sent to one of these camps as a small child and has been in various productions about this very topic.

I think the topic is extremely important and deserves to be tackled a bit more in-depth than this film allowed. Great to hear from Tamlyn Tomita, but there are sooo many more we could've heard from (Nancy Kwan, James Hong, etc.). Also it seems like the movie was essentially only about Japanese racism since hardly any other Asian races were featured or even mentioned.

Important topic but this was a half-hearted attempt. D.

Too much reliance on the same three talking heads but generous use of film clips and historical footage somewhat alleviates the problem. GGive it a B minus.

Always knew about Rooney and Brando (to mention nothing of Muni And Rainer) resorting to the noxious title practice. But it was embarrassing to see one of the five greatest female actors of American film and a supposed champion of liberal, values, Katherine Hepburn, stooping so low. And that Scarlett Johansson was still doing it as of 2017 and is unrepentant about it is downright disgusting. Let's boycott her films. Whadya say?

PS...And as long as I'm making suggestions I will gladly donate my backyard as the venue for a beer and/or sake summit between Joseph McBride and previous reviewer UNOhwen. Sounds like they have much to discuss.

I am not Asian but I have read too many books backing up what the movies claims. I have also seen too many Asian interviews recounting the same things. Although the focus is on Hollywood and America, other countries have had their faults as well when in comes to racism but that is no excuse for denying the truth and the reasons for what happened.

If there is a fault with the documentary with less than an hour it was rushed. More details could have been added about the injustices that took place during the 1920s to 1930 to the point where even killing someone from China or Japan who was not a citizen could be ignored. Did I fail to mention how hard it would be to even become a citizen?

World War 2 only made things much worst. Watch the documentary, simple as that.

I would love to read the opinions of our Asian-American contributors.