Lines of argument like what I’m about to get into are
usually the sorts of strawman burning matters that get people lynched on social
media for daring to voice it. But as I have already brought up this point in
previous reviews, it’s worth repeating: I don’t care about “whitewashing”
controversies when it comes to film casts. Or, at least, I don’t buy into them
nearly as much as critics have in recent years. The reasons why are many and
varied, from how people tend to cherry-pick examples to rage against to the
inherent hypocrisy involved in isolating only this instance (white actors
portraying non-whites) as a bad thing. But the biggest factor for my own
reasoning is that, considering the utter crap I’ve highlighted on this blog, I
can think of a myriad of worse sins that a filmmaker can commit than anything
involving ethnic (or non-ethnic) casting. So, imagine my lack of reaction to
how the only thing that anyone seems to discuss with this film is how a white
actor was cast as the lead in a film set in China and populated by and
primarily made by the Chinese. Time to dig in, and let’s see if there’s
anything else worth discussing.
