I’ve been thinking a lot about what Chinese consumer power is going to mean for images of Asian people in Hollywood films — (even if offending Asian Americans doesn’t effect a studio’s bottom line enough for it to be an issue, offending Chinese viewers, or the Chinese government, has real monetary consequences). I’ll probably write something longer about it once I think it through a little more, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share something that’s fascinated me since I was a kid: the way children’s films are marketed in America vs. Japan. These are commercials for the same movies, but check out the tonal differences:
(note: this is essentially taken from an e-mail I wrote to someone around ’07, so that’s the time period all the examples come from)
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
U.S. (this was probably ripped from Australian TV, but this is the same commercial they showed in the U.S.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch’v=MzCdHlZKcJ0
Japan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch’v=TbAUiAthEc8
Meet the Robinsons
U.S.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch’v=Gb1mT5eZs1M
Japan:
(embedding doesn’t seem to be working right, but there is a link below)
About Ben Hamamoto
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