Long Duk Dong | You Offend Me You Offend My Family

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Around the Horn: Han vs Han Revisited

November 21, 2011 9:46 am

ANDERSON: Offender Sung recently blogged about the “Other” Han, in the show 2 BROKE GIRLS, and how this stereotypical caricature of a character is step back for Asian Americans in mainstream media. Many people have derided Matthew Moy, the actor who plays Han on the show, for his Oriental, foreigner accent, and have practically asked for his head on a stick. But after doing more research on the guy, I realized that I’ve seen him before in other shows, and you know what? He’s pretty damn funny! Check out his acting reel below:

See, guys like Sung, and John Cho, Roger Fan, Daniel Dae Kim, Daniel Henney, etc, these are the leading man good looking types. Matthew Moy, on the hand, is a character actor. Moy is pretty funny. And because of his stature, he plays a certain type of character. He kind of reminds me of Mickey Rooney, another small guy. From the comments section in Sung’s blog, as well as other reactions on the Internet, many people make fun of his size. He’s a tiny guy and perhaps it’s his stature alone that Asian American males, take offense with, more so than his foreign accent and the fact that his character of Han “wants to be so hip?” So can we give this guy a break or should we break out the pillory? Let’s see what the other Offenders have to say…

Five Otherwise Decent Films Ruined by Asian Stereotypes

October 20, 2010 12:01 am

The new film, The Social Network, is proving to be a critical and box office success, but that hasn’t prevented it from being called out for its not so flattering portrayal of Asian women as over-sexed, white boy-loving crazies (see different takes on this issue here, here and here).

But this isn’t the first time Hollywood has produced an otherwise decent film that has raised the ire of the community. Following are my choice for five quality films (in no particular order) that would have otherwise been indisputably greater if not for their problematic Asian characters.

1. BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961)

Based on a novella by Truman Capote, many consider this film about a New York prostitute named Holly Golightly (the luminous Audrey Hepburn) and her search for love to be a bona-fide romantic classic. And what’s not to like? This is Hepburn at her most charming (I dare you not to fall in love with her after seeing this movie), director Blake Edwards brings a firm but still lighter-than-air touch to the proceedings and Henry Mancini introduced the great love song “Moon River” on the soundtrack.

It would have been absolutely perfect if not for Mickey Rooney’s yellow face performance as the Japanese Mr. Yunioshi. It’s not just that this is arguably the most offensive Asian character in an American movie (every stereotype from the buck teeth to the accent is represented here), but the character is so broadly drawn that it belongs in another movie altogether; only serving to pull the audience out of the story every time he appears. Read more...

Original Environmentalist: Long Duk Dong

April 22, 2010 1:34 am

There may arguably be no other Asian character who is more infamous or controversial in all of American cinematic history than Long Duk Dong from the ‘80s coming-of-age classic Sixteen Candles. Gedde Watanabe played the foreign exchange student who invades the home of Molly Ringwald and her family and appeared to have nothing more on his mind than partying and “big-breasted” American women. Much ink has already been spilled debating whether the character is stereotypical or not so I’m not here to talk about that. But whatever you may think of Long Duk Dong, there’s one aspect of his character that NO ONE has spoken or written about. And it is this: Long Duk Dong was an OG environmentalist.

Yup, before it was cool to go “green,” Long Duk Dong was a “tree hugger.” Don’t believe me? As today is Earth Day when our focus turns to issues like global warming and recycling and climate change and saving our planet, let me try to prove that our funny foreign friend was an activist ahead of his time by examining his dialogue in Sixteen Candles. If you look carefully, there are hidden messages in his words that provide all the proof you need that he was spreading “the inconvenient truth” at a time when Al Gore was still nothing more than the husband of the lady who tried to keep Prince and Ozzy Osbourne albums out of the hands of impressionable children:

The Untold Story of the ‘Brat Pack’

March 4, 2010 9:09 pm

“When you grow up, your heart dies.” — from The Breakfast Club

Just finished Susannah Gora’s new book You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, And Their Impact On A Generation. As the title implies, the book looks back on the 1980s and the particular brand of teen movies of the era pioneered by the late writer/director John Hughes (Gora focuses on the seven seminal works in this genre: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Some Kind Of Wonderful and Say Anything).

Many of us here at YOMYOMF grew up in the 1980s and these films were an important part of our youth despite their flaws (i.e. the glaring lack of diversity in them except for one infamous exception—see below). So let’s take a trip to the past with these little-known facts from Gora’s book: Read more...

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- Back In The Dayz

Don’t You Forget About Him: John Hughes

August 7, 2009 12:32 am

break460 (Director John Hughes with the cast of The Breakfast Club)

Among the Offenders, I’m known as the ‘80s guy because of my love for all things from that golden decade of my childhood. So the death yesterday of iconic ‘80s filmmaker John Hughes is something I feel compelled to write about. For anyone who doesn’t know his work, Hughes wrote, directed and/or produced classic ‘80s films like The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Some Kind Of Wonderful, Weird Science, Planes Trains And Automobiles, National Lampoon’s Vacation and Home Alone.

But among Asian American circles, he is arguably best remembered for creating the character of Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles: Read more...

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- From the Gut

Where is Long Duk Dong?

July 30, 2009 1:18 am

Every Asian American male growing up in the 80′s have a Long Duk Dong story to share. Now that it’s been 25 years since his introduction to the world courtesy of Mr. John Hughes, I’m just curious of his whereabout.
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