God Peter Sellers killed it
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Murder by Death
WilliamCutting92 — 11 years ago(October 03, 2014 07:00 PM)
When I mean that I mean he literally killed the movie. Not a good thing. A english man playing an Asian man. Was that supposed to be a joke. That being said it wasnt funny. Therefore everything he said in the movie wasnt funny. Meaning every scene with him in it was terrible. Leading to terrible movie. Thanks Peter.
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WilliamCutting92 — 11 years ago(October 08, 2014 09:08 PM)
I understand you. Believe me I do. But if they wanted an Asian to play a detective they should have hired and Asian. Why hire an Englishman Thats disrespectful for the Asian community. To hire and Englishman to play an Asian part? I mean really.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.†-
WilliamCutting92 — 11 years ago(October 28, 2014 04:46 PM)
Agreed. The movie would have been better if they had someone of Oriental descent playing someone Oriental. Not an Englishman. Instead of finding it funny if found it completely dumb. And for those who found it funny then, knock your self out with this comedy.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.†-
kelieann — 11 years ago(November 06, 2014 01:47 PM)
I'm really not sure if this is a joke, one of them troll pickles or you actually believe what you are writing.
Peter Sellars playing an Asian is the whole point. Sidney Wang is based on Charlie Chan a Chinese detective played in films by a Swede.
The whole film is parodying all the old murder mystery films, your Agatha Christies and Poirots. You can't have an Asian actor playing a spoof of Charlie Chan, it wouldn't work.
Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's is an entirely different thing. We can all look back at films from 50 years ago and shake our heads in disgust at the racism/sexism/homophobism (I'm sure that's not a word but I cant think of the right one) but that was a different time. Thankfully we live in an enlightened age where Asian characters are played by Asian actors.
If anything, Murder by Death was before its time in that it highlighted the ridiculousness of a white actor playing an Asian character. No-one that watches MBD sees Sidney Wang and thinks "Ooh what a good Asian actor he is," they think "Ooh what a funny parody of all the ridiculous films where white actors played Asian characters."
Well, the ones that got it do anyway
Awooga awooga, abandon shop, this is not a daffodil!!!! -
Jimmy-128 — 11 years ago(December 28, 2014 05:51 PM)
Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's is an entirely different thing. We can all look back at films from 50 years ago and shake our heads in disgust at the racism/sexism/
homophobism
(I'm sure that's not a word but I cant think of the right one) but that was a different time. Thankfully we live in an enlightened age where Asian characters are played by Asian actors.
Homophobia. Other than that, your post is 100% spot-on. -
patrick-413 — 11 years ago(February 18, 2015 12:02 PM)
I was about to reply with exactly the same point - glad you beat me to it kelieann. Yes, the OP (and several others here) missed the entire joke! Charlie Chan was never played by an Asian, so having him properly cast here would not be funny. And in fact, having his son actually be of Asian descent added to the wonderful ridiculousness.
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solex10 — 10 years ago(May 15, 2015 05:30 PM)
Excuse me, sir/madame, but the OP has every fracking right to be pissed off at this white-facing that's gone on (and still goes on) in Hollywood today. It's time that POC's (peoples of color) be seen more in films and TV generally (and no, it's not 'PC', it's a
human right
like any other). It looks like you need to have some facts pointed out to you:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/hollywood-whitewashing_n_5515919.html -
j_w_pepper — 10 years ago(May 23, 2015 02:29 PM)
I'm not sure about how serious you are about this. But MBD is
spoofing
the very things you criticize, and therefore is the wrong target for that kind of indignation.
We interrupt this program to annoy you and make things generally irritating. -
TheGuyWithTheFeet — 10 years ago(May 25, 2015 11:03 AM)
Let's give the OP the benefit of the doubt, though. Depending on age, not everyone may be aware of Charlie Chan and everything that this movie is spoofing. I see Mickey Rooney in Tiffany's mentioned (which is pretty offensive if you can't put the casting in the context of the time). But Tiffany's was in the 60s. Charlie Chan was in the 30s. There's a completely different awareness here.
I think it's hilarious and disagree with the OP. But I don't know how much the OP knows about what's being poked fun at.