Hailed as an Australian hero, Rosemary Kariuki works to connect refugee and migrant women through their strengths and joys — rather than treating them like ‘problems’ to be fixed.
Soo Yong’s career, particularly when contrasted with Anna May Wong’s, shows how Hollywood and Chinese popular culture aimed to depict Chinese women amid shifting Chinese-American relationships.
Relying on familiar stereotypes and images can make us miss this critical opportunity to reshape the ways in which Asian women are viewed as individuals and artists.
Early into the pandemic there were cries and questions as to whether the cinema industry would survive. The answer, it seems, was here all along. A robust and diverse local industry.
In depicting brutal massacres and mission life, this film gets a lot right. And the model for its central protagonist may well be a young man called Narlim, exiled from his country in the late 1930s.
Industry experts see the shift away from theatrical releases as a sign that Hollywood studios are embracing the inevitable future. But is it as simple as that?