47 Ronin: Keanu Reeves goes samurai

Well Keanu isn't fully white, iirc he is half Chinese so maybe they thought they could get a way with that.

According to his wiki page he's not half-Chinese, but he's got Hawaiian/Chinese ancestry from his dad's side.

He's apparently 1/8 Chinese. And Japanese and Chinese are generally considered quite distinct. Particularly by Japanese people and Chinese people.

But you are possibly right. Maybe they did think that much was enough to get away with it.

Apparently Keanu's role was expanded mid-production to shift the focus to him more. Originally he wasn't even part of the final battle. I'm guessing there will be a The Lancer-slash-The Aragorn character and people will be wondering why he isn't the lead.

Honestly though, after rewatching the trailer, Keanu's race isn't the worst part of his inclusion...

I think two things about California, it likes Asian things, things from the Far East, but is not too into the people. It has lots of stories it wants to tell, but is has too little confidence in itself to tell most of them without using the title of a more famous work.

Exhibit A: Kill Bill, lots of Asian stuff, comparatively few Asians (and most of them die).

Exhibit B: Super Mario Bros, a funny little Fish out of Water story that just so happens to have nothing to do with Super Mario Bros.

Here it seems they ran together. It might turn out "good" but it definitely will not be 47 Ronin. They should have just called it "Japanese Beowulf Starring A White Dude". I could buy Keanu Reeves as half Singapore, Mongol, Taiwanese, Malay, even an Indonesian but for some reason I just cannot buy him as Japanese.

I suppose next they will make a buddy movie starring Eddy Murphy as Indra and Liv Tyler as Amaterasu. In fact if I make enough money I will lobby for it, California's still broke right?

edited 2nd Nov '13 6:06:38 PM by Cider

I was wondering for a while if Reeves had something to do with the film even existing, a la the Live-Action Adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. I can't think of any other reason to cast him in the lead. Dude, there are fucking dragons in front of you. This merits emotion of some kind.

edited 31st Jul '13 7:07:16 PM by Mort08

"I think two things about California"

Hollywood, not California. Please don't lump the rest of us in with those nitwits.

New trailer.

To paraphrase The Cinema Snob: I'll stick with real 47 Ronin movies like the one directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, thank you very much.

I'm confused by the reaction towards this. Is it because it is Hollywood adding supernatural elements to a Japanese story? I ask, because Japan does this with: Oda Nobunaga, the Sengoku Basara series, the Ikkitousen series, and even with the French knight D'Eon by adding a dead twin sister and mercury-filled zombies.

edited 1st Nov '13 1:42:51 PM by GethKnight

Personally, I find the trailers to be pretty darn cool, even with KR.

Agreed. I think it's shaping up to be very impressive visually.

Why the man from the Matrix? Simple. He puts butts in seats. Said bums on chairs means money dear ladies and gents.

It would just be nice if we could say " he puts butts in seats" about someone who looks like they might have actually been a samurai.

From what I can gather of the story, he isn't really a samurai. He just teams up with the ronin.

Imagine if we got word of a Japanese movie about Robin Hood where the Sheriff of Nottingham is an albino wizard who sends vampire assassins to attack the Merry Men. We'd be pretty bewildered, too.

Eh, the Japanese have already said Emperor Nero and King Arthur were identical cute young blond women (and Nero actually was a very nice person. And Merlin made Arthur grow a penis for a while), who later fell in love with clueless Japanese youngsters.

@Geth,

I think the main problem is actually the white dude, who have jack shit to do with the story, being the main character. Since people are already aware of one awful change, they presume every other change is equality awful.

NTDChinaUncensored brings up the hypocrisy of having a half-white person being discriminated by the Japanese, when the film producers/casting directors discriminate against the Asians by casting a white actor, when the character is originally Asian.

Who is Reeves even playing? If he's just playing some schmoe they made up for the movie, it makes no sense to talk about who the original character was or whatever.

It doesn't matter who the character is. It's the fact that a white guy's the very center of a movie about Japanese folks, yet again, and being discriminated against.

It's kinda like Hollywood's saying, "yeah, we should own you. We're better than you, and when we discriminate against you, you deserve it. Don't fucking do it to us."

Did the Japanese not discriminate against half-breeds? If they did, why is that not allowed to be portrayed?

That's not the problem. He's a character they created for the movie who basically wanders into the original story and overshadows it with his own angst. The ronin are getting pushed aside in their own movie.

Yeah, but this doesn't look like it has anything to do with the original story. It's basically its own thing with the name of a historical group slapped on.

Reeves would have been much better if he was some rando outside historian who stumbled into the story and served as a framing device. A framing device who takes a lot of drugs.

I don't really mind (or care) for the plot or Keanu Reeves.

But if you're gonna name your movie 47 Ronin, I'm expecting the main story to involve Japanese dudes dueling with swords or putting a cunning plan in practice and talking about honour, bushido and all that stuff. Not half-breeds or other stupid devices that Hollywood applies to simply get some more cash. Because, you know, white guy playing a major role + current obsession with vampires, zombies, half-breeds and other 'special' beings = $$$$$, as marketing dictates.

edited 3rd Nov '13 1:31:28 PM by Quag15

"honour, bushido and all that stuff."

Do you know what the word Ronin typically means?