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The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
#1
We rented Case for Christ because the trailer looked like investigative journalism meets faith, 'based on a true story' but about half an hour in, we got tired of its preachy propaganda and bailed.

Somehow we surfed our way to this old Ingrid Bergman flick and it was strangely enchanting. Based on a true story of a female missionary in the 2nd Sino-Japanese war, I was fooled to think it was shot in Asia because the sets, costumes and cast, but wiki says it was shot in north wales. The mandarin dialog was correct, at least what I could understand, and the device of leaving it untranslated was something I've always felt more films should do, then it all shifts over to English after Ingrid learns Chinese. She remains ever luminous and despite the film's stereotypes, it has an authenticity and class like so many movies of that era. Stacy said it should be remade into a Kung fu film. No swordfights but a good village bombing, made better by the total lack of special effects. There's a young Burt Kwouk, who is delightful, and a rather yellowface Robert Donat as the Mandarin. A much better pitch for Christianity than our rental.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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#2
At first I thought The Inn of the Sixth Happiness was the movie where Marlon Brando played a Japanese character, which is often cited as one of the worst cases of yellowface.  But that was The Teahouse of the August Moon.  Personally, I think witchhunts in the past are way overblown.  For instance, for a long time the World Fantasy Award was a bust of H.P. Lovecraft; but due to a growing outcry -- because some of his letters and writings hold racist elements -- two years ago they switched to something else.  My question would be, what percentage of Americans were openly racist at the time he was writing?  Too many people spend too much time pointing fingers into the past instead of addressing their own shortcomings in the present.
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#3
Worst case of yellowface was Breakfast at Tiffanys. Rooney's Yuninoshi spoils a wonderful film. The Godd Earth was rough too. I remember having to watch that in elementary as part of world history and thinking wth?

Actually what was interesting about 6th Happiness was that it was astonishingly non-racist for the times. There's this line that the love interest (allegedly half Chinese but played by Curt Jurgens) says about 'could you ever love someone from a different race?' and Ingrid consents - pretty friggin progressive for back then. (The real Gladys Alward upon who this story was based complain because that character was completely Chinese in reality and not a love interest because she was devout and chaste, but what's the point of an Ingrid Bergman flick I feel she doesn't have a kiss scene?) Even Donat's character wasn't too chinky-chinky as James Hong used to say.

As for Lovecraft, I think he hated all humans. If you didn't have a face full of tentacles, you were beneath him.

As the token minority in DOOM, I feel obligated to play the race card here as much as possible. Especially lately.
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