History YMMV / FortySevenRonin

* AdaptationDistillation:
** Lord Asano Naganori is portrayed as an old and wizened man and Lord Kira Yoshinaka as a young upstart noble (which resonates with him being power-hungry). In RealLife, during the events of 1701 [=AD=], Lord Kira was the older man (Lord Asano was 34 by then and Lord Kira was almost 60).
** HistoricalVillainDowngrade: Lord Kira in the film can put up a fight and does fight when cornered. His RealLife counterpart [[DirtyCoward acted cowardly to the end]], fleeing his home, hiding in a coal dump and refusing to end honorably by {{Seppuku}} even when asked.

** Lord Asano Naganori is portrayed as an old and wizened man and Lord Kira Yoshinaka as a young upstart noble (which resonates with him being power-hungry). In RealLife, during the events of 1701 [=AD=], Lord Kira was the older man (Lord Asano was 34 by then and Lord Kira was almost 62).

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Pretty much everyone. Even critics who dislike the film acknowledge that the cast really are trying their best with the material they've been given.

* WhatTheHellCastingAgency: Given that Asian and Asian-American actors are less prominent in Hollywood, a considerable number of Asian-American viewers were disappointed that Universal played the ButNotTooForeign trope straight by casting Keanu Reeves as Kai.

* WhatTheHellCastingAgency: Given that Asian and Asian-American actors are less prominent in Hollywood, a considerable number of Asian Americans were disappointed that Universal played the ButNotTooForeign trope straight by casting Keanu Reeves as Kai.

* WhatTheHellCastingAgency: As an explanation of why so many Asians hate the addition of Keanu Reeves: 1) It's hard enough for Asians OR Asian-American actors to get roles. 2) Why would you add a ''forty-eighth'' character just to get a movie star in? They could have cast literally ANY Asian(-American), Pacific Islander, or Middle-Eastern actor as one of the forty-seven ronin and gotten a better response than casting Keanu Reeves. 3) Making that forty-eighth character a Caucasian-appearing mix just makes it worse. Of course there are a lot of mixed people who look white, but "Don't worry, (s)he's mixed!" has been used as an excuse to cast white-appearing actors in prominent minority roles too often for people to take it well anymore. Then there's the infamous backlash of TheLastAirbender's whitewashing, the coldly-received rumors of a whitewashed ''{{AKIRA}}'' remake starring Keanu, and you've got a perfect storm of fucktastically stupid casting decisions.

** The main three problems with casting Reeves are that 1) It's hard enough for Asians OR Asian-American actors to get roles, 2) Adding a ''forty-eighth'' character to an already sizable cast is clearly done to reel in the audience, and 3) making that forty-eighth character half-British and Caucasian-appearing just adds insult to injury. Then there's the infamous backlash of TheLastAirbender's whitewashing, the coldly-received rumors of a whitewashed ''{{AKIRA}}'' remake starring Keanu, and you've got a perfect storm of [[WhatTheHellCastingAgency fucktastically stupid casting decisions.]]

* AnticlimaxBoss: [[TheBrute The huge silver samurai]] is built up to be a tough fight for the ronin, but then he gets [[spoiler: blown apart by a bomb thrown into the powder room]].

** This probably came from the anger at the DoubleStandard in the job market for Asian actors, as well as stereotype casting. While a Caucasian actor/actress (or half-Caucasian who doesn't look too foreign) can play non-Caucasian characters all the freaking time (Film/TheLastAirbender, Film/PrinceOfPersia, etc.), it's a general consensus that no Asian or half-Caucasian actor who looks too foreign would ''ever'' land a 'white guy' role. (For example, casting Bruce Lee, who was part Caucasian, as George Washington).
** On the other hand, Keanu Reeves makes a career out of playing white characters, and he rarely (if ever) discusses his Asian lineage. He also played the Buddha once in 'Little Buddha'.

* UnfortunateImplications: One of the most blatant cases of MightyWhitey in recent memory, as apparently having the Ronin all be 100% Asian would completely kill any desire to see it. This is toned down a little by Keanu Reeves having some Asian heritage, but it still rankles.

* UnfortunateImplications: One of the most blatant cases of MightyWhitey in recent memory, as apparently having the Ronin all be 100% Asian would completely kill any desire to see it. This is toned down a little by Keanu Reeves having some Asian heritage.

** This probably came from the anger at the DoubleStandard in the job market for Asian actors, as well as stereotype casting. While a Caucasian (or half_Caucasian who doesn't look too foreign) actor/actress can play non-Caucasian characters all the freaking time(Film/TheLastAirbender, Film/PrinceOfPersia, etc.), it's a general consensus that no Asian or half-Caucasian actor who looks too foreign would ever land a 'white guy' role. (For example, casting Bruce Lee, who was part Caucasian, as George Washington).
** On the other hand, Keanu Reeves makes a career out of playing white characters, and he rarely(if ever) discussed his Asian lineage. He also played the Buddha once in 'Little Buddha'.
* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Pretty much everyone. Even critics who dislike the film acknowledge that the cast are trying their best with the material they've been given.

** This probably came from the anger at the DoubleStandard in the job market for Asian actors, as well as stereotype casting. While a Caucasian (or half_Caucasian who doesn't look too foreign) actor/actress can play non-Caucasian characters all the freaking time([[Film/TheLastAirbender]], [[Film/PrinceOfPersia]], etc.), it's a general consensus that no Asian or half-Caucasian actor who looks too foreign would ever land a 'white guy' role. (For example, casting Bruce Lee, who was part Caucasian, as George Washington).

** This probably came from anger of DoubleStandard in job market for Asian actor and stereotype casting. While Caucasian(or half caucasian who don't look not too much foreign) actor/actress can play non-caucasian character all the time(Last Airbender, Prince Of Persia, etc.), it was general consensus that no Asian or half Caucasian who look too much foreign would never ever land on a 'white guy' role(For example, putting Bruce Lee who was part Caucasian as George Washington).
** On the other hand, Keanu Reeve make a career out-of playing white character and he was rarely(if ever) discuss about his Asian lineage. He also play Buddha once in 'Little Buddha'.

* CriticalDissonance: The film was widely panned by critics, but maintains a [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1335975/ 6.8 out of 10 on IMDB]].

* CriticalBacklash: The film was widely panned by critics, but maintains a [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1335975/ 7.1 out of 10 on IMDB]].

* UnfortunateImplications: One of the most blatant cases of MightyWhitey in recent memory, as apparently having the Ronin all be 100% Asian would completely kill any desire to see it.

* HateDumb: Before it even came out, the movie took a lot of flak largely for starring Creator/KeanuReeves. Implications of his acting talent aside, the biggest complaint is that he can't realistically play a half-Asian character, despite actually being of mixed-Asian descent.