"We think that Zhang Ziyi is truly the best actress to play this character, regardless of ethnicity,"

Yeah, I'm not precisely getting that either. Now, I couldn't tell you if she looks authentic enough, because my eyes aren't that sensitive. I think it pathetically obvious that the Yoruba woman in the Riverworld series (it was on last night, bear with my ita-come-lately) is NOT JUST BLACK.

If Ziyi's that obviously wrong, I weep for the production. I just can't tell. I used to be able to tell, but not any more.

being confirmed by the apparent back-patting going on within the production.

It's the back-patting that makes it annoying, really.

I've found that I can usually single Korean men and Japanese women out of the general Asian pool, but I wouldn't trust my ability to do so with the other permutations.

What was the general impression of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in the house? (We watched, thought it was okay, and that Kate Winslet was very pretty in a Jessica like way, but failed to connect to the characters enough to care about them.)

Plei is me. Then again, I'd say the same thing above about Lost in Translation (was okay, Scarlett was v. pretty, failed to connect).

I, too, thought Hero was beautiful enough that the thinness of the story wasn't distracting. I've heard that Daggers is better. Can't wait to see it.

I think from a Japanese point of view, casting a Chinese woman is no better than casting a Frenchwoman. Asians don't all look alike to other Asians.

That's probably true, but there's also a lot of history behind the Japanese attitude there that, frankly, doesn't always reflect well on them. I'm not saying they should be forced to endure Zhang Ziyi as penance for their past imperialism, I'm just thinking that, as cultural slights by hamfisted Americans go, it's rather mild.

they should be forced to endure Zhang Ziyi as penance for their past imperialism

Maybe that's why there's all that backpatting. Revenge.

there's also a lot of history behind the Japanese attitude there

I wasn't thinking of an specifically Japanese attitude, FWIW. Just your average nationalistic don't-rule-the-world one.

I wasn't thinking of an specifically Japanese attitude, FWIW.

Oh, I know. You clearly made a comparison to casting non-Jamicans, so I get where you are coming from. That's where I was headed with the comparison between European nations, too. I think it was Betsy who pointed out that, to the Japanese, a Chinese actress would be particularly inappropriate.

I'm working on the part where, last I checked, Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi didn't speak English at all. And they are acting in an English-language movie? Are they going to be the kind of geisha that doesn't say anything?

(Also, you know, Mandarin accents in English sound nothing like Japanese accents of same, and Michelle Yeoh's accent is distinctively like neither of them.)

Ken Watanabe at least speaks reasonable English (and I think Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is an American of Japanese ethnicity, right?). Unless there is some optical poptitude planned, to distract one from the dialogue, this movie may have worse problems than the whole political "pan-Asian" issue.

No, Zhang Ziyi speaks English now. Don't know about Gong Li.

I'd imagine that their English is better than their Japanese, so it's a small blessing.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was born in Japan, but is American.