John Wick 4 star Donnie Yen criticizes Quentin Tarantino’s depiction of Bruce Lee in As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood. A legendary star of Hong Kong motion movies, Yen has not all the time gotten an opportunity to shine within the Hollywood motion pictures he’s signed up for over time. However John Wick: Chapter 4 offers Yen arguably his best American film position to this point with Caine, a blind murderer who is named out of retirement to kill his outdated pal John Wick.
Having starred in each Hollywood motion movies like John Wick 4, alongside all his basic Hong Kong motion pictures, certainly offers Yen a novel and helpful perspective on the way in which American motion pictures deal with Asian characters, and there’s one latest movie specifically that the star has an enormous drawback with. Talking to Selection, Yen introduced up Tarantino’s As soon as Upon a Time In Hollywood, which has come beneath regular hearth since its launch for the way in which it depicted Asian legend Bruce Lee, for instance of how American motion pictures get it unsuitable. Take a look at what Yen needed to say within the area beneath:
“All people is entitled to their opinions. Quentin Tarantino is a really famend filmmaker, and he’s entitled to his standing. And I’m entitled to state my very own view. Clearly, he was making enjoyable of Bruce. It was cartoonish.”
Why Tarantino’s Bruce Lee Depiction Is So Controversial
There’s arguably no larger star within the historical past of Asian cinema than Lee, who burst onto the scene within the Sixties, however sadly handed away on the age of simply 32. Lee’s standing as an icon is certainly exactly why so many took difficulty along with his depiction in Tarantino’s As soon as Upon a Time In Hollywood, in a scene the place a fictionalized model of the martial arts legend (Mike Moh) battles Brad Pitt’s stuntman Cliff Sales space, and is bested by Sales space’s character. Most outstanding amongst critics of the scene is Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee’s daughter, who referred to as out Tarantino in an article written for THR in 2021:
You possibly can think about by now that I’m used to individuals solely seeing one side of my father and blowing that up right into a caricature. That has been taking place since shortly after he handed. However often, someplace in that caricature is a few type of nugget of affection for the person and his work. Not so with Mr. Tarantino.
It’s after all comprehensible that figures like Yen, who keep it up the legacy established by Lee, can be defensive about an arguably mocking depiction of the star like Tarantino’s. Yen certainly has needed to struggle his personal battles in opposition to stereotypical Asian depictions in motion pictures, even pushing again in opposition to the way in which his John Wick 4 character was initially conceived, and convincing producers to use the modifications he prompt.
Tarantino for his half has defended his depiction of Lee by claiming Pitt’s Sales space used a grimy trick, implying that this could reduce the offense taken by Lee’s defenders, and by citing sources who declare the actual Lee handled stuntmen with the identical disrespect his Lee exhibits towards Pitt’s character in As soon as Upon a Time In Hollywood. It’s unlikely that this protection would transfer Yen nevertheless, as he made it clear he sees Tarantino’s depiction as mocking and cartoonish, with no sense of actuality.
Supply: Selection