The Great Wall Trailer Review a.k.a. Another White Male Saves China

The Great Wall American trailer came out recently to some controversy. It stars Matt Damon, Jing Tian, and popular Chinese singer and actor Luhan. It’s an action fantasy centered around The Great Wall and the evil that lurks beyond it – hint: the evil is a dragon that the main character needs to slay.

Which could be cool, considering that there is a cultural history of dragons within China’s mythology. There even seems to be a strong diverse female character played by Jing Tian.

Check out the trailer here:

 

I love the idea of a co-production between American and Chinese film companies, as well as a diverse, all-star cast to attract people from both sides of the aisle. The story seems entertaining and a possible metaphor for a Trump campaign – there’s an evil on the other side of the wall and the only person who can save the general populace is a white male despite the movie literally being set in China.

If you haven’t read Constance Wu’s thoughts on the topic, here is a lovely link to one of my favorite outspoken female Asians:

http://www.avclub.com/article/constance-wu-has-no-fucking-time-matt-damons-china-240362

Ok, here goes:

This doesn’t seem to be raising much of a fuss on the Chinese side – but on the American side, where diversity in film has been an obvious, rampant problem that hides behind the idea of only white male stars attract moviegoers to spend cash, it’s another blow in a series of long-standing insults. Especially on the tailcoats of Matt Damon’s comments on his show Greenlight.

Matt Damon’s Greenlight Diversity Controverys:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/matt-damon-project-greenlight-effie-851656

Another reason that this is so frustrating is because Matt Damon is such a great actor. When he made those comments on Greenlight, it broke my hopeful little heart.

But back to The Great Wall: would it have fucking killed this movie to cast a person of color as its main actor? The movie is going to make money regardless because it’s marketed towards American and Chinese markets. Literally any skin color besides white would’ve worked and made sense in whatever rural era of China this fantasy is set in.

A key factor missed in casting seems to be that NON-WHITE PEOPLE CAN BE HEROES TOO. Americans can empathize with people of color. This storyline is going to be more entertaining than deep, so why not take the chance and have America represented by someone other than Matt freakin’ Damon?

If Jing Tian is exoticized or overly-sexualized and ends up being Matt Damon’s love interest in a non-equal relationship that doesn’t make sense within the movie’s storyline I will actually lose my shit.

And no, it doesn’t make it ok that the director and other characters are Chinese, or that it’s backed by Chinese financiers. It is a film titled The Great Wall, which everyone comes out of the womb knowing is in China. Not a huge stretch of imagination to believe that the main character would be Chinese.

If diversity wasn’t the big deal it is within Hollywood, it wouldn’t matter that Matt Damon is the hero of this movie. But because lack of diversity is an issue, this missed opportunity for Hollywood is just another slap in the face for the minority community.

Get your shit together Hollywood and stop racial bias. Would love to see a non-white person in a main heroic role. Also, if this is just backlash from the trailer, I can’t wait to see what happens when the actual movie comes out.