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Hollywood would like to portray the Asian
male as either a wimpy intellectual nerd, or a shrewd, immoral businessman. Thanks to John
Woo and Chow Yun Fat, the Asian male no longer has to be pigeonholed into such degrading
stereotypes. Woo and CYF have teamed up in a number of movies to portray Asian men as
gutsy, gun-wielding action heroes with an attitude and an unending supply of bullets.
Among these great movies are "Hardboiled", "The Killer", and the
"A Better Tomorrow" series (especially ABT and ABT2). Hollywood would like to show Asian men as passive and non-threatening, or perhaps back-stabbing, untrustworthy low life. But Chow Yun Fat has taken the roles normally given to Stallone and Swartzenegger: super cop, assassin, gambler, triad boss. He become an icon to remind us that we need not let the American media tell us who we are and what our place in society should be. In early 1998, Chow Yun Fat will make his debut in America with his newest film, "The Replacement Killers". Whether the film is good or not is not the point. Watch very carefully how the media, film critics, and even the film's production company publicize CYF. And be sure that it will affect the way Asian men are portayed in movies in the future. David Lee's Chow Yun Fat page. An excellent source of CYF materials and the site looks great too! Chow Yun Fat: God of Actors. Been around for a long time, but still up to date. Winston's CYF Page. Not sure how up to date it is, but he's got a nice collection of pictures For a Few Bullets More... A Tribute to John Woo by one of his many web fans. |
