The Asian women from these Hollywood movies regard the American as their "savior". They are usually either in poverty or having no personal freedom. They fall in love with the American because they see him as a knight who will take her with him so she can make her "American Dream" come true. Marrying the American means moving up a social class. In turn, the American is attracted by the Asian woman's submissiveness, which encourage him to dominate her. Having the syndrome of a conqueror , feeling a kind of superiority over Asians, the American is convinced that he can have anything he wants in his new "colony", including women.

A woman of Asian descent is supposed to be an entertainer, possibly a courtesan or geisha. Her facial expression is probably sexually suggestive . Her smile is promising, and her hands are curled in an oriental gesture of humbleness.

However, the image portrayed can be divided into two stereotypes: the immoral, diabolical, seductive Dragon Lady and the docile, passive, obedient Lotus Blossom. These characteristics, which may at first seem rather paradoxical, probably reflect the America's encounter with Asian women largely through U.S. military involvement in countries of Far East Asia in the twentieth century.

In Henry King's Love is a Many Splendored Thing a Eurasian doctor Han Suyin and a married journalist fall in a love made impossible by his wife, their alien cultures , racism and politics. Initially shown as an antithesis to the typical Asian ( she does very well on her own , does not seek a husband to take care of her), Suyin eventually falls into the category of meek, submissive, ready to serve a man's every need Oriental woman. Admittedly, their interracial relationship is highly disapproved by other characters of the movie. The tragic ending of the movie reinforces the director's idea that Asians and Americans should not mix.

The World of Suzie Wong, directed by Richard Quine, is another Hollywood production that can be analyzed as the movie full of Asian stereotypes. Suzie Wong is a prostitute who initially fits into the role of a typical Chinese seducer. Because Robert Lomax, the main hero, is an artist, she tries to get him to sleep with her to increase her own prestige. Later, as the film continues, she transforms into a fragile woman who needs to be cared for by her man, also a typical Hollywood stereotype. Apart from this, the director of The World of Suzie Wong is trying to keep with the stereotype of broken language. For instance, Suzie often speaks without the use of articles, her vocabulary of English isn't rich By seeing Suzie portrayed in such a way, viewers can get to think that all Asians speak and act in an uneducated manner. 

The heroine of The Quiet American Phuong is an 18-year old Vietnamese girl who is working as a dancer , a kind of a high-class prostitute. Her only wish is to get the best protection and support she can. At the beginning it is provided by being Fowler's mistress, but when an American appears, she can switch her allegiance quite easily to him because he can offer much higher level of security in a form of marriage. However, after Pyle's death, she can come back to Fowler as though nothing had happened. Her character in the movie seems to be deliberately underdeveloped, oblique and remote as it is usually the case in Hollywood portrayal of Asian women. When Phuong is not lighting an opium pipe for Fowler, she is doing sexy dances in the living room, or mixing drinks. Beeing a self-aware object of male desires, Phuong hardly cares about either of male characters. Her display of self-interest and acute insight frightens Fowler by film's end.

However, what is really noticeable about the character of Phuong, is that she seems to be the epitome of the Vietnamese people. Pyle, who obviously symbolizes the whole western civilization, sees her as childlike, fragile and in need of his guidance

More recent Hollywood production Memoirs of a Geisha is an ethnographic spectacle, pleasing to watch, yet misrepresenting Japaneze geishas to the world. The characters of the movie fit into the traditional Hollywood stereotypes of Asian women as readily exploitable and available. The use of a broken English accent without reference to any national or ethnic identity makes the film sound hopelessly pompous.

The Last Samurai is the film that explicitly address issues of cultural difference. It seems to honor Japaneze culture by appearing to adopt it. Here the white guy, Tom Cruise, is the hero, providing a point of identification for white viewers but not for people of color. Unfortunately, the film terribly lacks profound reality as it does not show how Japanese widowed women either commit suicide or become prostitutes to survive. Here a Japanese woman is portrayed just like a typical Asian female of Hollywood's fantasy.

Having considered all mentioned above, we can now conclude that even in our age of political correctness the stereotypes of Oriental women as sexy, submissive, and subservient still dominate in American popular culture.  Hollywood directors prefer fantasies to reality in the case of Asia by making movies that work best when the viewer knows nothing about the Asian culture.

Even such recent films as The Last Samurai and Memoirs of a Geisha continue to keep with a stereotype of Asian women as accepting and meek. Despite the cinematic Asian costumes the soul of Hollywood movies hasn't really shifted eastward

This article discusses the issue of race in movies. Specifically, it analyzes how white and black characters are portrayed differently in the movie, Be Cool, written by Peter Stienfield and directed by F. Gary Gray. Be Cool is a comedy sequel of the movie Get Shorty. The movie stars four white actors: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Danny DeVito, Vince Vaughn, and three black, or non-white actors: The Rock, Christina Milian, and Cedric the Entertainer.

Chili Palmer (John Travolta), with his ever so poised attitude and strong build, is the star of this movie. Chili decides to leave the movie industry to pursue the music business. In the first ten minutes of the movie, Chili's friend is killed by the Russian Mafia. Chili heads to his friend's wife, Edie Athens (Uma Thurman), to offer his services in assisting her run the record label. Throughout the movie, Chili and Edie eventually become romantically involved. The romance has to wait however. Their time is occupied by the young pop star that will be the savior of the record label, Linda Moon (Christina Milian), dealing with her pretentious manager, the manager's gay, aspiring actor bodyguard, Russian mobsters and an Ivy League gangster music producer and his entourage.

“Hollywood has arguably done more to integrate Blacks into productions than any other mass medium. Yet exclusion of minority actors from certain roles and actions persists”. This movie is a confirmation of this fact.

This movie depicts three of the four white characters as poised and in control of their immediate situations. For example, Chili Palmer is the essence of a well rounded man. He speaks confidently, is not afraid of the opposition, and in the end, he gets the girl. Chili is in control of every situation he encounters. As Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki argue, “Black-white conversations almost all involve hierarchical relationships with the white in charge of critical decisions and the direction of the plot”. This movie is a true depiction of this fact in most every scene.

Edie Athens loses her husband in the first ten minutes of the movie and with Chili's help, immediately regains her footing in the music industry without shedding a tear. She is depicted as a stereotypical all-American white woman. She is blond, sexy, warm, and non-confrontational, and a lovable woman. Edie and Chili, the two leading white characters, become romantically involved.

Raji (Vince Vaughn) is a white man playing a character that, as the other characters proclaim, “Thinks he is black.” Raji's character is an obvious attempt by the writer to create humor in the movie. Raji's character, however, is a reminder of the depictions in the movie Ethnic Notions by Marlon Riggs, where white people adorned exaggerated costumes and language in order to portray black people. In Raji's effort to be black, he speaks in slang, barely completing a coherent sentence without using profanity. His attire consists of suits, hats, and he dresses, as Chili Palmer says, “Like a Pimp.” He has no respect for women, particularly his client, Linda Moon, and is out to get what he wants by any means necessary.

All of the black characters in this movie are in supporting roles. Sinclair "Sin" Russell (Cedric the Entertainer) is a black rapper with an entourage of gangsters. The fact that Sin has an Ivy League education is certainly not the stereotypical black man; however, his positive traits seem to be overshadowed by the fact that he is a gang banger. Several scenes almost make a mockery of the fact that he is an intelligent black man.

In one scene the Russian Mafia uses racial epithets towards Sin. The head member of the Russian says, “Be Cool, N****r!” to Sin. As Joe R. Feagin noted in The Continuing Significance of Race: Anti-Black Discrimination in Public Places, “The most common black responses to racial hostility . . . are withdrawal or a verbal reply” . Sin chose the verbal reply,

”How is it that you can disrespect a man's ethnicity when you know we (black people) have influenced nearly every facet of white America; from our music, to our style of dress, not to mention, your basic imitation of our sense of cool . . .walk, talk, dress, mannerisms. We enrich your very existence, all the while contributing to the gross national product through our achievements in corporate America. It's these conceits that comfort me when I'm faced with the ignorant cowardly, bitter and bigoted who have no talent, no guts; people like you who desecrate things you don't understand, when the truth is you should say, thank you man and go on about your way . . . “.

During this verbal retort, the camera zooms in on Sin's face, possibly an effort to get the audience to absorb the words. Although a valiant effort on the part of the producers to get this message across, “Creating a color-blind society on a foundation saturated with racism requires something more than simply proclaiming that the age of brotherhood has arrived”. After shooting the Russian, Sin comments, “Racial Epithets, why does it always have to come down to that? Makes me sad for my daughter.”

Dabu, Sin's right-hand man, is another attempt by the writer to add humor to the movie. Dabu has a strong desire to kill someone; however, when he holds a gun, often times it discharges without any intent of his own. He tends to display cross-cultural attributes, from drinking tea with a pinky finger in the air to wearing a bullet proof vest with his pants barely above his thighs. In one scene Sin and his group of friends are outside of a club talking to Chili Palmer after going to get Mongolian Barbecue. Dabu is so smitten by the character, Linda Moon (Cristina Milian), that he is completely focused on her while eating his food and begins slurping as if in a sexual manner. In that scene, Dabu displays the stereotypical sex-crazed black man.

In addition to Dabu, Sin's entourage is a group of black men portraying the stereotypical gun-toting gang bangers who threaten people in order to get what they want. Their wardrobe consists of bandanas, pants worn well below the waist in order to show their boxers, plenty of jewelry on their necks and wrists, and their mouths full of slang.

In the beginning of the movie Linda Moon is an aspiring singer who has grown to hate the music business because of her experiences with her current manager, Raji. Linda Moon comes across not as a black or a white character, but more of a neutral role. Although a minority, she plays a role that may have been portrayed by a white female as well, without much change to the dialogue, wardrobe or scenes.

The Rock is a gay bodyguard who is searching for his big break in the movie industry. His appearance alone tends to be threatening until he shows his only significant feature, the raised eyebrow. Although “The Rock” and “Gay” in one sentence alone seem to be an oxymoron, he portrays the stereotypical black gay man with ease.

White and black characters are treated similar in respect to the names they are given. Chili, Sin, Raji, Dabu, are all slang names and all of which you would associate with black characters.

Some of the roles and situations in this movie, when seen by the typical white American, are likely to reinforce anti-Black stereotypes. The black characters, outside of the black police officer, are essentially framed as lazy, careless and cold gang bangers. This is the common view of all black men that the media portrays to the typical white American.

In one scene, Sin's entourage drives up to his house in three black hummers with expensive rims, with the music playing extremely loud. Annoyed, Sin dismisses this behavior by saying, “. . .must you live up to the stereotypes?” Sin's white neighbor shakes her head and hurries into her house shortly after the cars arrive. Inside of one of the cars is a kidnapped program director who the audience assumes is in charge of the music that is played on radio stations. Sin proceeds to threaten the man into playing his records. As this occurs, Sin's daughter walks out on the porch. While the men, under the order of Sin, greets Sin's daughter, the camera moves to the back of the men to show low waisted pants, boxers showing, all have weapons stuck in the back of their pants.

Entman and Rojecki argued that “White racial thinking now spans a spectrum that runs from racial comity and understanding to ambivalence, then to animosity, and finally to outright racism”. “The bulk of whites exhibit ambivalence that may be tipped toward comity or hostility depending on the interaction of political climate, personal experience, and mediated communications”. “At one end of the spectrum are white people who believe it is not possible to generalize about African American individuals any more than about whites. At the other end of the spectrum are full blown racists who believe blacks and whites are fundamentally different”.

How would seeing the movie, Be Cool, likely affect the sentiments and schemas of a typical, racially ambivalent White American? The characters and scenes in this movie are heavily stereotypical of black people. This movie may bring a since of confirmation of what a typical white American might think about black people, based on what they have seen in the media. For many white Americans, the media is the only way many white Americans see black people so their schemas are influenced by these images. According to Travis L. Dixon, Cristina L. Azocar, and Michael Casas, “African Americans are typically relegated to a depiction as perpetrators while being underrepresented as officers and victims on local television news”.

One may argue that the character Raji is a negative depiction of a white man and may influence whites to believe that it isn't just blacks. However, “Whites already know that members of their group come in all moral and intellectual shapes and sizes.”. So a character like Raji is not likely to have a real affect on their current thinking about their own group.

Given that the stereotypical black man is heavily portrayed in the movie, Be Cool, a typical white American seeing this movie could either remain as ambivalent or be moved from ambivalence to animosity. “Racial animosity occupies an important step short of racism. Although those exhibiting animosity often get labeled as racist, they do not see their stereotyped anti-black generalizations as adding up to a natural racial order that places whites on top and legitimizes discrimination“.

Although the movie industry has made great strides in reaching comity between white and black roles, the efforts are still lacking. Society still tends to instinctively provide white actors with highly coveted roles and black actors in highly stereotypical or supporting roles.

In The Motel, director Michael Kang is able to bring a new angle to the classic coming of age story by showing it through the lens of the Asian-American experience. The movie, though never heavy handed or blatant, is written facing head on the stereotypical assumptions held by many involving sexuality, work ethic, blind obedience, and romance. Similarly, these themes can also be attributed to East Is East, a story of a large Pakistani family living in England in the 1970's who struggle with their own problems of tradition and culture, while subtly shattering many molds that have been made typifying the classic portrayal of the South Asian.

In The Motel, Kang makes a departure from the relative one dimensional Asian-American character archetype by painting a complex yet believable portrait of his characters. The protagonist, Ernest Chin, is a thirteen year old child raised in a motel owned by his mother. Abandoned by his father, and lacking any male figure in his life, Ernest struggles with his own budding sexuality and romantic interests. Similar to Abdul in East is East who looked to his older and more suave brother Tariq for guidance in the realm of romance, Ernest is able to make friends with a patron of the motel Sam Kim, who's worldly knowledge is shown from his entrance scene in the movie.

Sam Kim is an exceptional character for analysis, as he remains incredibly dynamic and multifaceted throughout the film. As he enters in his first scene, his arm around a blond prostitute, many traditional East Asian stereotypes are immediately broken. The concept of an asexual, quiet and unassuming Asian man certainly do not apply to Sam Kim, who's raucous and wild behavior are nothing short of spectacular. This is similar to a number of stereotypes addressed in East is East. Tariq, for example, also has a taste for the after dark social scene, and creates a new image for South Asian males ? certainly the idea of a playboy Pakistani would seem incredible not ten years ago. He has a Western girlfriend, and continues to frequent night clubs ( on some sort of regular basis as the bouncers knew him by sight.)

Of all the children, Tariq appears to be the most rebellious (even the eldest son Nazir didn't have the courage to face his father the way Tariq does), which also threatens the notion of an obedient and mild mannered Asian child (certainly the terms obedient and mild mannered could only be used to describe the children as an antithesis).

Other similarities can be drawn from two of the female leads in the movies. Both Meenah, the daughter of Om Pun and Christine, the love interest of Ernest ? are excellent examples of stereotype busting women. Meenah, in no small part due to the number of brothers both older and younger, lacks any attributes that may confuse her with a stereotypical South Asian woman, one referenced by her father many times (his first wife). She does not seem to show any strong sense of religious devotion, obedience, or ?desert flower?-like attributes. Her ability to kick soccer balls through windows however impressive, do not fit in to the stereotypes many hold of Pakistani women.

Much like Meena, Christine fails to live up to the mysterious sexual creature described in the Asian Women pornographic magazine. Her wild devil-may-care attitude and a penchant for cigarettes and liquor mouth wash make her certainly against the mold. I think Christine can be foiled against Meena effectively, since they are both strong, independent women who have a mind of their own. Thats not even to mention they both demand the affection of somewhat socially inept younger boys.

The movies also have some differences, particularly in their use of the two father figures. In East is East George (played by Om Puri) is the head of the household. Though some may debate that the mother had strong sway, I think it's pretty safe to say that George held the reigns for the most part, (certainly he held such a position by some questionable means ? but this is beyond the scope of this essay). George's word was law, (as far as he was concerned), and while his children may or may not have obeyed him, they certainly respected if not feared his authority. This patriarchal family remained under the rule of the authoritarian father throughout the movie, even at the final scene where George shows growth as a man, he is still exerting control over his wife.

Although, as I've said, her complacency may certainly be voluntary, throughout the movie she cannot bear to ?put her foot down?, Sajid's circumcision case in point.

On the flip side, the movie The Motel's primary father figure, Sam Kim, has nowhere near such a commanding authority. He couldn't even convince Ernest's little sister to play with him after she had been scolded by her mother. Much of the movie's sub plot revolving around Sam, in fact, plays upon his acute inability to control himself much less anyone else. The movie ends with his tenuous mentor-ship of Ernest coming to a close at Ernest's behest. Far from a patriarchal display, Ernest's mother remains the obvious head of the house hold (even in control of her father).

In conclusion, both the films East is East and The Motel draw many similarities between both South and East Asians, and while some markedly deviations from each other exist, it is curious how many stereotypical similarities exist between two such distinct cultures. In any such case, the directors and writers of both movies adroitly put many of these preconceived notions to rest, and attempted to build new possibilities in the way we see people from the Asian continent ?whichever cardinal direction they hail from.