I watched Edge of Tomorrow without knowing it was an adaptation. It seems like a movie without source material, because the plot depends on you not thinking too critically about any of the details. (How does this time loop work? Why does it also involve psychic visions? Why are these alien invaders called “mimics” when the only thing they mimic is the Sentinels from The Matrix?)
Edge of Tomorrow is in fact based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need Is Kill, which was also adapted into a manga of the same name by Ryōsuke Takeuchi and Takeshi Obata. Edge of Tomorrow is SWIMMING in source material.
I have read neither the novel nor the manga, but learning that Edge of Tomorrow is based on a Japanese work with a Japanese hero with the action set in East Asia really changed my feelings about the resulting film. I actually really enjoyed the movie despite its derivativeness and lapses in sense-making, well-chronicled by my colleague Andé Morgan here. But now it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Because I’m fine with liking an unoriginal and illogical sci-fi movie, but I’m not so cool with liking an unoriginal, illogical, and racist sci-fi movie.
Because turning Keiji Kiriya into William Cage, casting Tom Cruise, moving the action to Western Europe, and casting white people in 98 percent of the speaking roles are all racist acts perpetuating bullshit white supremacy in Hollywood.
Sure, there are no Japanese actors as big as Tom Cruise. There are few actors, period, who are as big as Tom Cruise. That didn’t stop Edge of Tomorrow from pretty much tanking at the box office, though. And they could cast their precious white Name Actor as the female lead Rita Vrataski, who is a white American in the book and a white Brit (Emily Blunt) in the film. She’s a more interesting character anyway, and the film would probably benefit from re-centering on her. And maybe a sci-fi movie headlined by a woman and a Japanese man would have gotten more notice from audiences who dismissed Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow as generic enough to wait for home video?
And why change the setting to Europe? What makes that more interesting or dramatic a setting, other than racism? I was reminded of this summer’s Godzilla, which used “increasing whiteness of populations at risk” as its form of raising the dramatic stakes as the monsters trekked across the Pacific Ocean.
I need Hollywood to figure out that white people’s lives are not intrinsically more valuable. And that white movies stars are often not as valuable as they’re supposed to be. “Bankability” is not a justification for whitewashing. I’d like to think the weak performance of Edge of Tomorrow might clue Hollywood in on this. Especially because Edge of Tomorrow was saved from being a total bomb by the foreign grosses from the very countries deemed not interesting enough to be the setting of the adaptation (although, notably, there was tepid reception in Japan).
In Edge of Tomorrow, every time Tom Cruise’s character dies he learns from his mistakes. But when a movie like it dies at the box office, Hollywood just shrugs and says “it probably needed more white people.”
Robin Hitchcock is an American writer living in Cape Town.
I generally like your posts, and if you talk about whitewashing meaning that there aren’t enough non-white people (latin, black, asian), I would agree with you, but if your point is that they bought the property to do whatever the hell they want with it, and they did, and that bothers you, then I can’t agree with you. All you need is kill was done at an specifi time for an specific market, Edge of tomorrow was done at a diffrent time, for a diffrent audience (and as much as US movies depend more and more of foreign markets to be successful, they still are made with the US in mind). The movie made little money the way it is, do you really think that a faithful version of it would have made more?
Your whole argument is moot. Japan is a homogenous country. The US is not. Thus this whole bad argument that the movie was made for a different “audience” is nonsensical because the US is multi-ethnic. The problem is those in Hollywood don’t wish it to be that way hence all the whitewashing of major nonwhite characters.
What further makes your comment so wrong is the fact that in the original sci-fi novel “All You Need is Kill” the cast was actually multi-ethnic. Aside from a Japanese male protaginast and a white American female protagonist, you had a Native American mechanic and a half Japanese half Latino sergeant as prominent characters. The movie “Edge Of Tomorrow” pretty much whitewashes anyone that isn’t white.
“The movie made little money the way it is, do you really think that a faithful version of it would have made more?”
Terrible argument. This assumes that the movie that came out was the best possible version of the story thus making it the definitive attempt and if it didn’t do spectacularly then nothing can.
I’m not familiar with the source material, but I watch a fair amount of anime. The characters are usually of an unspecified race. Japanese people interpret the characters as Japanese. White people interpret the characters as white. It’s ridiculous to call the movie racist because it’s an American version.
While I agree that we need more roles of actors of color, I think all this emphasis on whitewashing only serves to make race a bigger deal. What we need is to get to a point where it really doesn’t matter if a character is white, black, brown, whatever–where an Asian character is someone who just happens to be Asian, rather than someone defined by his Asianness.
No, the characters are Japanese. See how they have Japanese names? That makes them Japanese. If not otherwise specified, they are Japanese. It works exactly the same way over here. If not specified, that stick figure is a white man. It’s called the default. Here, we have white privilege. In Japan, it’s Japanese privilege.
And you’re wrong about emphasizing race makes it a bigger deal. Well, it does, and that’s actually what we want it to do. What you’re talking about is being color blind, and while it looks ideal, what it truly does is blind you to injustice as well. We need to be aware of race and sex issues in order for us to counter and fix them. Although you say that we should get to a point where it doesn’t matter what someone’s race is, (which is ideal world) we’re clearly not there yet, and pretending that we are, does nothing to help anyone right now. If you pretend that everything is perfect, you won’t notice that there are problems still to be solved.
You’re mostly right except about the “stick figure” thing. There is no “stick figure” thing happening in manga and anime. Japanese characters are drawn differently from white characters almost all the time. It’s just that most in the West don’t know how to interpret the art properly.
Not only are you wrong about the characters in anime (no, they are not an “unspecified race” as the characters that are meant to be Japanese are drawn differently from white characters… YOU just don’t know how to interpret the art properly), your entire point there is completely moot because “All You Need Is Kill” is NOT an anime. It’s a sci-fi novel. There was a Japanese comic book adaptation made but it was just that, an adaptation making your comment even more incorrect than it already was.
There is no way to interpret art correctly. That’s not how art works.
Yes, there is a way to interpret certain drawings correctly. I can’t go around saying that Peter Parker is a Middle Easterner in the comics because that’s now how he is meant to be interpreted as in the art in the comics. It’s no different with characters drawn in manga and anime that are meant to be Japanese. Just because some people in the west are not knowledgeable in the artform doesn’t give them the right to start declaring characters are white who are not.
Well, it depends on the anime… Example: Attack on Titan. 😛
Attack on Titan actually proves my point. They are not drawn as Asians. They are given the typical white features that Japanese give to white characters (e.g. long noses, narrow shaped faces, square jaws, etc..).
Theres only one (only half) Japenese in AoT…
Yes, I know that. I just said that Attack on Titan proves my point.
Are you paying attention to what you are reading?
Actually, I can’t remember about the point I was trying to make in my original comment… 😛
“Actually, I can’t remember about the point I was trying to make in my original comment.”
I rest my case.
Make sure it rests well.:P
Okay?
Yes, this movie builds on a racist, evil worldview, but not in the way you described. The whole picture changes when you understand the source material. Given this is a Japanese manga/anime/book certainly by the “alien” attack on the homeland it alludes to “pure, peaceful” Japan being attacked by the “Western beast” (the US) in WWII.
Godzilla is a symbol for America too – at the same time destroying Japan, but also protecting it from even more dangerous monsters (the Russians, the Chinese, etc.)
What is also a giveaway that the author of the original is a typically xenophobe / racist ultra-right wing Japanese is the concept of “mixing of blood”. Not unlike the Nazis, the Japanese are to this day obsessed with the idea of “pure blood” being superior to “mixed blood”. It’s not even a fringe idea in Japan and other East Asian countries. – Spoilers ahead – So the notion that the aliens have sowed the seeds of their own demise by letting their blood mix with that of humans is very Japanese and fitting with racist theories still rampant even in higher educated Japanese circles.
Robin, you were right on the money detecting racism and creepiness in this movie, only your conclusions didn’t count in the fact that the source material is Japanese. So the racism is very much targeting “white” people (Americans mainly), and the movie simply and naively “Westernized” the story and setting but keeping much of the racism intact.
The source material of this movie is a good example for the massive, but unfortunately often underestimated potential of racism and superiority complexes prevalent in Japan as of today. It’s the Hollywood Yasukuni shrine, if you will.
Who cares, the movie was awesome!
As a Japanese I am simply excited and happy that one of our stories was made into a Hollywood movie. (And a pretty good one too!)
Just as the author of this article, when I watched this movie I did not know it was based on a Japanese novel. I only learned that when I recommended the movie to my American friend and he said he’d already seen it and that it is based on a story made by Japanese.
I was like “Whaaaa?” and googled it, and Wow.
I mean I didn’t write the story but the fact that story written by Japanese caught attention of Hollywood director almost made me feel proud of my country (I mean I am, always, but proud-again.), and also because the concept of the story was so good.
Another fact is that we (JPN) could not have made this story into a movie as good as US did(visually + acting & etc.), and probably never will. So ultimately I am thankful that Hollywood spent 100+ million dollars to make a movie based on an idea came out of one Japanese guys head, and distributed it world-wide.
I’m also proud that in this story the female protagonist takes huge role in defeating the antagonist. (Not trying to be feminist.) I mean, “usually” in American made Hollywood action movies, heroines are sexy, acts tough and talk trash or tries to be witty, gets in trouble just to be saved by the protagonist and falls in love. That’s how women are usually portrayed as. Just a hero’s prize.
But in this Japanese made story the female protagonist does just as much as the male protagonist. They actually work together all the way to the end.
Always good to see good things comes out of your country, especially when its widely accepted by other cultures.
I was on board for a few points but you have a downright appalling, illogical, and idiotic understanding of the concept of racism. Terrible article.
Characters who have Japanese names are meant to be Japanese.