Forum - View topicIs The Live-Action Fullmetal Alchemist Movie Any Good?
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CrownKlown
 Posts: 1762 |
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For God's sake just say "we are a Japanese company, in Japan, making a movie for a Japanese fan base" instead of some contrived statement which ends up being more racist implying sibling relationships or any of the other generic concepts in FMA are "Japanese".
I feel like less people would care, if the studios just bold faced said "hey we are a business and a financial decision was made" instead of trying to always justify why some Asian movie now features an all white cast or vice versa. People would be like "shoot they actually admitted", be a little ticked off, and then move on. |
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Nate148
Posts: 470 |
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but then you admitted to being racist which will dog you for the rest of your movie making career and will led to being called out on it in past films
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4084 |
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They could have moved the entire setting to Japan rather prefacing the work with "imagine they're all Caucasians". Considering some of the other changes they must have done... congratulations, Fullmetal Alchemist is no longer the worst adaptation... that would be the smallest capitulation to pragmatic live action adaptations.
Let's see... if I adapted the work to a single movie, I'd drop the entire "seven deadly sins"/Chimera aspects and focus on the Amestris plot, the State Alchemists and Ishbal... and how two young alchemists set right what the earlier generation did wrong. You know who would still be in it as he's the main counterpoint to both the heroes and villains not to forget that his existence is the redemption of the State Alchemists. Also, I wouldn't adapt the work to a single movie in the first place. At least four, maybe five; Hit all the sweet, juicy notes while cutting the clutter. |
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DecimoX
Posts: 8 |
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Whitewashing is an American problem stemming from lack of roles for minorities in Hollywood, and it really don't apply to homogenous countries like Japan. Kinda feel bad for making the Japanese film staff worry over issue
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#861208
Posts: 423 |
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This is probably the opposite of what most people would care about, at least on an anime site, but I thought the movie came off sort of as inaccessible to people who weren't already huge fans. Like, they'd tease a character's appearance with some thing that fans would recognize about the character (e.g. Winry's toolkit, Roy's glove), and then the character shows up, and the fans get excited.
It clearly was not made to bring in new fans... which is sad, because if it had been done to that end, it really could have been viable internationally.
Not quite true. First of all, Japan's attitude on the matter is completely different. For the most part, Japanese audiences want to see all Japanese actors in Japanese movies, and no Asian actors in Western movies. You'll notice that all the outcry over those things came from Americans, and people in Japan were mostly fine with it. Second, if you're going to treat media as if it's for everyone in the world - which you should nowadays - separate standards can't really apply. Though, I'm used to not having the actor's race apply to the character. Pretty much all live theatre is cast regardless of race, unless it's about race, and I also watch a lot of plays in Japan, which usually means they're all Japanese. (Personally, I think that if there are three different things being made, one based on a work that takes place in Japan, one based on a work that takes place in Renaissance Europe, and one based on a work that takes place in a complete fantasy world, then a white actor, a black actor, an Asian actor, and any sort of multiracial actor should all have an equal chance at any of those parts, regardless of any of that. If people are going to be bothered by seeing someone who doesn't look like the character would have looked in real life, that's why animation is better than live action. In all other respects, though - height, build, tone of voice, etc. - they should match the character, but that's not a problem.) The fact that they said anything at all was kind of stupid, though, not for that reason, but as the first poster said, they seemed to think that sibling bonds are an exclusively Japanese thing. |
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catandmouse
Posts: 213 |
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There is something I find funny about all of these "controversies" about the ethnicity/race of actors nowadays.
Back in Shakespearan times all roles were played by men. My point being that acting is supposed to make you believe something that it's not. I'm not saying that things don't need to change in Hollywood, but they are going about it all wrong. For example, lately in all the superhero movies they've switched out a previously white character with an African-American, but yet there is still no switch between white characters now being Hispanic or Asian. If everyone is clamoring about equality, white washing and the like, where are the other ethnicities? Going back to Fullmetal Alchemist's all Japanese cast of a story that was based in some sort of European country, did the fact that what you think a person should look like and what they really look like make the movie any more or less good/fun/interesting? Hell, I read all the Harry Potter books, I thought the castings for the movies were for the most part good, yet I didn't like who they cast for Gilderoy Lockheart or Fleur Delacour. They didn't match the descriptions in the books (and in my head), yet the movies were still enjoyable (yes I know, they are not main characters.) I've heard people say how it's odd that these actors are Asian and the names are not, but how many Asian-Americans have names that are not of Asian decent? All of the friends I have that are Asian Americans don't have Asian names. I think people are too fixated on how other's look and get up in arms when something like the Attack on Titan live action or this movie came out with an all Asian cast. Yes we know that they are supposed to be of European decent, and it is the actor's job to make me forget that they are not actually European. In short, did the actors in this movie do their job? |
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CrownKlown
Posts: 1762 |
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I don't think there is anything particularly racist about making a movie based on financial decisions. Japan is like 99 percent Japanese, so the logistics of finding Caucasian actors who can speak good Japanese alone would be close to impossible. My point is the director should just admit this, and nobody credible could sit there and cry racism. He is giving you a sound financial reason for why he did what he did. Racism implies, per the dictionary, "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." instead the guy says generic cliches are somehow uniquely "Japanese" which if you look at the def. above is inherently racist. Like someone else pointed out it didn't even help they did not try what death note or ghost in the shell did, and move the film to another location, change names etc. Hell they kept the blonde hair on at least two of the characters (while it is possible, a Japanese person with blonde hair is pretty close to nil because it would require some non-Asian ancestry, unless you get the one in a million or higher chance of a mutation I guess). My point is I don't care or expect the cast to be anything but Asian, just don't make some stupid excuse and put your foot in mouth. Ill be honest these live action movies are just crap because they are poorly made and cheaply funded, and often has little to due with casting. Like they were saying about the ill fated Keanu Reeves movie, even something like Cowboy Bebop needs a budget in the range of 250 million plus, and that is just not going to happen. And in the rare instance money is spent, like GiTS, it wasn't the casting that doomed the film, it was the story and deviation from the philosophical concepts the original postulate3s, not to mention Matrix and other films have long bled this type of film dry. And its not limited to Anime, Game live action suffer from the same problems. Honestly I can think two live action adaptations that I like, Prince of Persia and City Hunter, and maybe Silent Hill if we throw in the so bad its good. |
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MajorZero
Posts: 359 |
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So, it's significantly better than trailers would suggest? I mean, just from the trailer I can see that FMA adaptation can offer subpar CG, poor costumes, cheap, network tv-esque cinematography and Edward's hair looking worse than Daenerys' wig in GoT.
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DecimoX
Posts: 8 |
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You seem to have a wrong idea about Japanese people. It's not that they 'want' to see all white or all Japanese, but that with small number of minorities, they are not aware of the problem of minorities being washed out in multicultural countries and generally don't care
Japanese live action is made with just Japanese audience in mind, and foreign markets are just extra. Hollywood on other hand make billions worldwide. Media is often not intended for everyone, and are just made to target specific audience. So what you are saying don't stand
That sound ideal but doesn't work when non white actors are being out right told that they are not looking for non white actors. Until society stop differentiating between people, what you are saying can't work |
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