Race in Plays and Film

          For me, race never truly is a factor for how I watch a play or a film. I do not care what race the actor or actress is, because I only care about how they play the character. Of course, in some occasions race is very important for the character. Our society now no longer allows for black-face or yellow-face performances. It is politically incorrect to tape a person’s eyes or paint their skin simply for them to play the role, not when someone of that race is available to play the part. However, then the lines begin to be drawn more clearly within those boundaries. I know that there was a lot of controversy about the main actresses in the film Memoirs of a Geisha, because they were Chinese instead of Japanese. There were cries of how it was politically incorrect to allow such a thing, but though I understand their reasons I truly cannot see the purpose of the outcry. The film was made for American audiences, for people who truly cannot tell the difference between someone of Chinese and Japanese descent. If they were to make a film for Asian audiences mainly, say something that featured a girl from Ukraine, would the audiences truly know the difference if they were to place a girl of German descent in the role? It is only a thought. Also, my original thought when I heard about the issue was that maybe the Chinese actresses could play the role more convincingly than any Japanese actresses. The point of the movie was to make money, not to be a politically correct statement about the lives of geisha. Of course it is the principle of the issue, but I can understand why things played out the way they did.

            And now onto Disappearance.

            I was actually very surprised to hear that people were distracted by the fact that the actors in the play were not Asian, seeing as though it was a modern Noh play. The fact never really bothered me since the play never specified which country the play was set in. Having lived in America my entire life, I am used to a country where people of all races live without it really being a problem. Having an Indian man fall in love with an Asian girl while his Caucasian doctor talks to the Jewish spy who loves the Muslim woman honestly is not that strange. People speak different languages, people’s families are from different places. Why should that ever be a problem with how a person watches a play? Even had the play specified that the events happened in Japan, the world was at war for a seemingly long time. People could have been displaced all over the globe, leaving them in places you would never expect to find them. It truly is not that foreign of an idea.