3/21/2023 0 Comments Keiko agena 2017Yoshihara: And the last scene where the mom hugs her daughter at the grave, that was weird to me. A Japanese mom, she wouldn’t just let a stranger barge in. Okatsuka: Because I’m curious about the directing of certain moments. The director, Rupert Sanders, is white and from England. Okatsuka: Was this directed by a Japanese director? Kato-Kiriyama: It’d be such a great moment for the actor. Okatsuka: They didn’t think about the depth that she’d have to go to understand that. I’m not saying she had to have had this effusive, emotional physical outburst, but after you realize there’s a Japanese brain in there somewhere, I didn’t see any sort of reaction different from the rest of the movie. Kato-Kiriyama: Probably ScarJo as a person didn’t know that nuance. How do you really root down in the fact that you grew up Japanese and, when that moment hits you, not go funny or over the top? Okatsuka: That’s why she chose the robotic route.Īgena: As an acting challenge, I don’t think there was anywhere for her to go, realistically. Okatsuka: If Major started bowing all of a sudden … ( Laughter.) How f- ing hard, as an acting exercise, would that be to realistically play, and how much backlash would there be? There’s going to be a moment in this fictional film where you realize who you are. Kato-Kiriyama: Didn’t you wonder if it was a struggle for Scarlett Johansson to make sense of her character? “I am not what I see in the mirror.” We never see that in the performance.Īgena: Imagine that you were cast as an African-American character. Okatsuka: I would have preferred them just using American names. And kind of laugh-worthy at the same time. Kato-Kiriyama: It was supposed to be so touching and intimate, and it felt gross. We’re looking at these beautiful white bodies saying these Japanese names, and it hurt my heart a little bit. Michael Pitt used to be Hideo.Īgena: That was the other cringe-worthy moment, when they called each other by their Japanese names. For some reason, the best stuff they make happens to be white. The text at the beginning of the movie explained that Hanka Robotics is making a being that’s the best of human and the best of robotics. Okatsuka: And they f- ed up in the process because now it looks even worse. Hard and awkward.Īi Yoshihara: Major’s backstory is white people trying to justify the casting. How did you feel when that twist was revealed?Īgena: That was hard, y’all. And then to be like, “Oh shit, I used to be a Japanese woman!” ( Laughter.) That was against my expectations. I thought it was just going to be an action film, no explanation, just go with the fact that it’s a future Japan with this robot cop. Acting-wise, what a missed moment.Ītsuko Okatsuka: I wasn’t aware they were gonna explain the whitewashing. That scene should have been beautiful, but Major had nothing in her eyes. It got me because of the emotion of the mother. ![]() Kato-Kiriyama: That scene was devastating on all levels. But when she finally meets her mom, my gut felt so weird in that moment. ![]() To get emotionally invested, you have to really care that she needs to find out who she is. Keiko Agena: It was harder to watch than I thought it was gonna be. Traci Kato-Kiriyama: It was stunning visually, but emotionally it didn’t draw me in. How did the movie compare with your expectations? The following conversation, conducted Saturday, has been edited for length and clarity. Major reunites with her Japanese mother toward the end of the film, as well as with the terrorist Kuze (Michael Pitt), whom her squad has been chasing, who is actually Hideo, an old friend who was earlier abducted by Hanka and became a failed prototype. What they discovered in watching the Hollywood adaptation was a surprising twist: Johansson’s Major, told that she is a refugee named Mira Killian whose brain was rescued from a terrorist attack and put into a cybernetic body, is actually a Japanese runaway named Motoko Kusanagi who was kidnapped by Hanka Robotics as part of its ongoing experiment to create the ultimate cyborg weapon. The participants were Keiko Agena ( Gilmore Girls), stage actor/writer Traci Kato-Kiriyama ( PULLproject Ensemble), Atsuko Okatsuka (co-founder of the all-Asian, mostly female Dis/orient/ ed Comedy tour) and Ai Yoshihara ( The Sea of Trees). The movie opened Friday, and The Hollywood Reporter invited four actresses of Japanese descent to watch Ghost in the Shell on opening weekend and participate in a candid discussion about the film, its whitewashing charges and working conditions for actresses of color in Hollywood.
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