hardboiled

a conversation with iris yamashita

With this year's SFIAFF logo, "We love film" in mind, hardboiled decided to check out this year's line up of films and interview onf of SFIAFF's highlight actors- John Cho. Having SFIAFF withdrawals? Relive the week with us by checking out our interviews and film reviews!

At first glance, Iris Yamashita's journey to become an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter seems like a fairy tale. Growing up, Yamashita loved to write but majored in engineering, eventually working as a software engineer. However, she continued to write and after winning numerous writing contests, she hit the jackpot: She was hired by Paul Haggis to write the screenplay for a Clint Eastwood movie. Filmed in Japanese with English subtitles, Letters From Iwo Jima described the WWII Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese who fought in it. But while Yamashita's rags-to-riches, or rather engineer-to-screenwriter, story may seem like fodder for many a young writer's dreams, it isn't as sweet as first appears.

Two years and one Academy Award nomination later, Yamashita came to speak at the San Francisco International Asian Film Festival in March as the focus of "A Conversation with Iris Yamashita." Speaking to an audience of one hundred, Yamashita addressed her experience in screenwriting and the film industry. She started by saying, "Paul Haggis didn't think he was qualified to write the screenplay from the Japanese perspective - he wanted an authentic voice, and so he narrowed it down between me and a screenwriter in Japan. I ended up getting the assignment!"

Haggis wanted an authentic Japanese voice for Japan during WWII, so he picked Yamashita, a young Japanese American, born and raised in California, who speaks only English. In addition, she was chosen over a Japanese writer from Japan who speaks and writes in Japanese. What is the logic in this? A Japanese name is a Japanese name? A Japanese face is a Japanese face? A Jap is a Jap is a Jap?

Certainly not, and so why is Yamashita so excited about being mistaken to be an "authentic" Japanese from Japan? Does she not see the danger in herself, a Japanese American, representing Japan to the American public?

Whether or not Haggis really needed an authentic voice is arbitrary. The point is that Haggis automatically pegged Yamashita as an "authentic voice" for Japan just because she is Japanese American. When asked to explain how exactly she is an authentic voice, Yamashita is vague: "Well, I'm a little familiar with Japanese culture. And I did more research compared to Memoirs of a Geisha or Last Samurai."

Was being Asian American ever a disadvantage in the film industry? Yamashita said she didn't necessarily think so. "Being Asian American helped me get the job," she answered. "Having a unique voice helps you get your foot in the door. All writers are on the same playing field - what's going to make you stand out?"

Yamashita continued, "There is growing diversity in roles going to Asian actors. Just look at characters like the ones in Heroes and Lost. Moving in this direction is more likely to happen." She also added that in 2003, there were a number of very "different portrayals of Asians" in movies like Kill Bill, The Last Samurai, and Lost in Translation. "All of these movies portrayed Japanese in different ways. There is definitely more savviness in portrayals these days."

Even with this so-called "savviness," does Yamashita feel a responsibility to promote Asian American perspectives, rather than just the Asian perspectives that are in the movies she mentioned? To this Yamashita replied, "It's hard to categorize... What is Asian American? Chinese American, Japanese American, Indian American... Asian Americans are so diverse."

While Yamashita's misconstruction may seem relatively harmless, it's not. It speaks to the difficulties Asian Americans face not only in society, but in the media and film industry. In assuming that Yamashita is an authentic voice for Letters From Iwo Jima, Haggis and Eastwood created a monolithic Asian identity - all Asians are alike, no matter if they're in Asia, from Asia, or have never actually been to Asia. With few exceptions, if you have an Asian face in Hollywood, you are Jackie Chan, the Chinese delivery boy, the masseuse at the massage parlor, or the diligent student who spends Saturday nights studying for the SAT.

And for much of the population of the United States who have little understanding of Asian Americans, these stereotypes are truth. In turn, these stereotypes affect how Asian Americans are perceived and treated by continuing to perpetuate the existence of a monolithic perspective that all Asians and Asian Americans presumbly share. This monolithic perspective does not exist, and so please, Iris Yamashita, correct your mistake: A Jap is not a Jap is not a Jap.