So I just saw a video (x) about Japanese people in Japan watching the DN trailer, and a lot of them were cool with it. Not too much of a surprise.
But it reminded me of something. Anyone remember the Coldplay music video for Hymn for the Weekend? A lot of Indian people in India loved it, they thought it was amazing. It was the Indians in America that were upset, and people used the fans in India as a kind of “They like it, so you’re just being dramatic, you SJWs.” Heck even people in India were saying that the Americans were being too dramatic.
But here’s the thing. The people who live in a country are not the same as the people who descended from that country but live in the West. They have completely different experiences. The music video used Indian culture as an aesthetic and the people as props, and while having Beyonce sing and be a part of the video wasn’t terrible, the fact that they had her dressed in Indian clothes and acting like a movie star was upsetting, considering there are a lot of actresses who could’ve had that part while still Beyonce dressed in her flowery aesthetic. In India, where they have tons of Indian media, getting this attention from the Western world, and such a popular band, was amazing. To those of us living in the western world, it was just another piece of media that we were pushed out of.
The same goes for the Death Note Remake. In Japan, they already have a lot of Japanese media, so something like this getting so much attention in the Western world was nice. But to those who live in America, it’s another movie that doesn’t represent them. Yes, it’s American, but there are Asians who live in America, and they want representation too. And yeah, they could just watch Japanese media, but they don’t live there. They’re American. A movie based on Japanese media should still have Japanese characters in it even if it’s an American remake. You cannot act as if those who live in Japan share the same opinion as Japanese-Americans.
(I know this wasn’t the point of the video, but I know this’ll come up as an argument eventually and wanted to address it )
