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'Ghost in the Shell': 4 Japanese Actresses Dissect the Movie and Its Whitewashing Twist from The Hollywood Reporter.
When THR interviewed Japanese fans about the whitewashing claims, they werent 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 youre 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: Its 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. Were walking this in-between where I scream at Hollywood but Im also like, Whyd you do that, Japan?! Et tu, brute, on both sides.
Yoshihara: Japanese people are self-loathing.
Full article.
THR invited the women to join a no-holds-barred conversation about cultural authenticity and why Japanese nationals fail to understand the race controversy: "People in Japan worship white people."
Some really great perspective here. I particularly enjoyed the commentary on how Japanese mothers behave.