Writer Photos Darrell J Banks

Asian Film Fever
By Darrell J Banks
CR 2023/2024 All Rights Reserved Worldwide

What is Asian Fever and why is it so in vogue this year? You have a South Asian film that was nominated and won several awards (Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards) and you have Michele Yeoh, the actress.
Now fetishes are nothing new, we all appreciate beauty and Asians come in a variety of beauty from dark chocolate to the palest person in Thailand. Now Asian fever comes in various forms, there is the pun of the Ying and Yang. I love you (Michelle Yeoh) I hate you (any Asian is a target). For those who are spurred on by hate. There is a past president and a 2024 candidate who somehow seems to offend any Asian person/country at will. Yet he has an Asian spokesperson. Ironic, life, film, television, that dichotomy that would take a million pages to discern. Think about the current world controversies from ocean to ocean. If you dare peruse the Esquire article by Henry Wong.

But here we are a year late, Asian Film Fever. I missed the movie but saw The Wrap Interview with the Director of Marry my Dead body, Wei Hao Cheng. That seemed like an interesting film a police officer finds a red envelope and falls in love with a ghost. The theme is similar to EEAAO (via Esquire), where the daughter was a lesbian. In Marry the director stated audiences have seen it all thus the cross-genre film has become a necessity.

Which brings us back to Every Thing Every Where All At Once. (science fiction, fantasy, drama, and martial arts)

Michelle Yeoh has been around for a long time Super Cop, Star Trek Discovery, and Crazy Rich Asians. She has been in all the genres, Sci-Fi, fantasy, drama, and the martial arts.
I remember her work in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and that James Bond film. Despite her long career, her net worth 40 million according to clutch.com. Thirty years later she should be worth more then that.
At least Halle Berry money. Look up what Viola Davis and Tarij have said on that subject.
My best loved films with Michelle are Babylon AD and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She was also a Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies. So why does she represent Asians in film 2023/2024? And what roles await her since her Oscar™ win? According to IMDB.COM. Star Trek 31 and the Avatar sequels.
Will her win lead to a downfall in roles ala Halle Berry? Will she be bounced back to television only ala Angela Bassett with a random movie role? Or with a current demand for Asian Film Fever (the fever) will she make a Crazy Rich Asians Part 2?
Asian film history. Well, it is a long-complicated history. Annie Mae Wong, Lucy Liu, and then there is Mulan with Ming Na Wen. The only other Asian Actress who works as hard is Bai Ling who has 116 film credits on Imdb.com.
The central problem with American Asian films is Asian films from their respective countries.
The USA Asian population including south Asians is around 17 million adults according to Pew research.
Not much of an audience, if you consider the populations of New York city and Los Angeles. Yet, despite that the number of Asian Film festivals in America has increased to a large one in San Francisco then there is the CAAM festival (1982). Is that enough to sustain and Asian fever for the film genre?

Like MoonLight or even Black Panther how do we explain last year’s win for best picture. What just happened? (A movie title) Like Black films, Native American films, Hollywood spins genre films out better than a Tom Cruise series.
Mission Impossible what #?
Was it the actors, the script, the directors, Jamie Lee Curtis (winner)? Or just the fever, the need to see something, similar but different. In watching the film, the characters could have been any minority group, but somehow, the dichotomy of an Asian family grabbed America. Thus, the film succeeded right for its time. Think about this, what would have happened if Stephanie Hsu or Hong Chau had won supporting best actress. Or even going back a few years what would have happened if La La Land really won best picture. As an associate said it was a better film. Really, maybe, or maybe not.

Choices are difficult for anyone, I could I have written a piece on Black film, Latino film etc. But the carryover from EEAO has well created a few new Asian American film projects. Time will tell if American Asian Film has arrived or will be thrown back into the corner ala Monster’s Ball, Twelve Years a Slave or even King Richard.

Sundance 2024 may open another Asian American film fever theme in 2024.

If you want to explore this topic further. I suggest you try Alfredo Molina’s article on 5 Asian films, which provides an insight on the biggest problem for Asian American films. Each Asian country has its own film industry which you can check out on Fave, Tubi etc. etc. etc. And those films always garner Oscar attention.
Ciao