Cho Change: After Columbus
But in many ways, Cho's actions speak louder than his words ever could. After Columbus, which promoted Cho as a dramatic actor and Director Kogonada as more than just a Vimeo video editor, Cho embarked on what seems like his proudest achievement yet: Searching (2018). Again, another Asian American director-actor effort (Aneesh Chaganty and John Cho) that premiered to rave reviews from Sundance, a sizeable haul at the box office, and a title as the first Hollywood thriller starring an Asian American. Speaking at the Asian American International Film Festival, Cho stated that he knows and sees the film and his achievement as a 'big deal', specifically noting how rare it is loving Asian American family onscreen.
In an interview with the Independent, Cho noted that the film was not only important for Asian American representation, but also cinema and storytelling as a whole. “I told Aneesh, as soon as I saw the movie for the first time, that I was blown away, because he added to the vocabulary of cinema. And it’s just so hard to do in 2018. What he’s done is show people that this is possible and, when that does happen, I think it becomes a part of the toolbox of filmmaking.” As well, he also noted his own personal connection to technology, identifying telecommunications and social media as a way to keep in touch with friends and family in Korea and "“sharing grandkid pictures over the ocean." His usage of mediated communication technologies to attach himself to a wider community is not unique - white kids keep in touch with their parents via the same devices and technologies even if they only live twenty minutes away - but is consistent with existing scholarship on diaspora telecommunications. Cecilia Gordano Peile coins the term 'transnational family caregiving' to describe "a basic need for migrants and non-migrants to provide caregiving at a distance mutually" (127-128).
Aside from acting in Searching, Cho has also taken producer roles, the most relevant to this project being his involvement with Tigertail (dir. Alan Yang, 2020). This film premiered on Netflix during the COVID-19 pandemic, amidst a surge in national depression, anti-Asian rhetoric and violence, and my own development of this research report. While I found the film disappointing overall - including a lack of exciting characters, palpable emotive qualities, or narrative direction - this was nonetheless an interesting film to me. Cho has been a high-profile name attached to the project since its first reporting by The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. At the time, Cho was reported to be starring, with the assumption he would occupy either the lead role or a major supporting role. However, by the time Tigertail hit Netflix, Cho's only presence was in the credits - he had been cut out of the film and reduced to only a producing capacity. Director Yang explains this omission with Alex E. Jung of Vulture:
"He definitely shot some stuff with us. It was great. He delivered an amazing performance in the movie. As happens sometimes in the course of editing, the movie tells you what it wants to be. It killed me to do it, but his character was in some of the modern-day scenes, and we didn’t end up using those scenes. I called John basically as soon as I was thinking about making that decision. He was in Australia filming Cowboy Bebop. We had a fairly long, meaningful conversation. He was so supportive and understanding. I’ll always remember that conversation.
He told me that he had a great time working on the movie. In fact, he was doing scenes in this movie that were scenes unlike he had done before in his career. I know how long he’s worked and how much he’s meant to the Asian-American community, so that meant a lot to me. He’s an executive producer in the movie. The movie would not have been the same without his energy and force behind it, so I’m incredibly grateful to everything John gave to the movie."
Yang touches upon a couple key features of Cho's involvement. First, an acknowledgement of his continuing star power and industrial presence. While Cho himself noted that his career may be in its waning stages, Yang clearly recognizes that Cho's 'energy and force' helped bring the project to fruition. As well, these cut scenes continue to build on Cho's developing dramatic career, with Yang's assertion that these scenes were 'unlike [anything] he had done before' falling in line with how NPR has framed their conversations with 'ex-stoner' John Cho. Lastly, Yang sees his executive producing role as a way to connect to the larger Asian American community, perhaps a sign that Cho engages with Asian American media creators more often, and in more meaningful ways, than he is willing to let on.
John Cho will voice act in Over the Moon (2020) and Wish Dragon (2021) and star in the live-action television adaption of Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop for Netflix. His casting in this series feels momentous. Cowboy Bebop has a major international cult following, with many scrutinizing earlier attempts to adapt the series, including one that attached Keanu Reeves (who identifies as 1/8th Asian American) in the role Cho will now play. Even after #starringjohncho, there have been a few high-profile whitewashed roles in American anime adaptions, including Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell (2017) and Nat Wolff in Death Note (2017). Ed Skrein narrowly avoided controversy after being cast in Hellboy (2019) in a role that was originally a Japanese American in the comic book series. After media outrage, Skrein left the role, with Daniel Dae Kim being cast afterwards.
As Korean American stars began, with Philip Ahn, we return yet again to cross-ethnic performance. Daniel Dae Kim and now John Cho inhabit roles that are meant for Japanese, colonizers of Korea. Yet, perhaps pan-Asian solidarity and unity has collectivized Asian Americans across the board now. For Cho and his generation of actors, specificity may be wanted, but years of industry stereotyping have left them satisfied with something less particular, but no less important - roles of any kind that cannot be reduced to martial artist, math nerd, or Yakuza villain.
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