I am not japanese and I still had serious problems with Last Samurai. The casting of that idiot in the lead was only the beginning - that's a personal dislike of him. It took several tries before I could sit through the whole film, but there was much of it that was objectionable and the story's slant bordered on offensive. I would rather sit through a Kurosawa epic in black & white without subtitles, understanding none of the dialogue than endure that one again.

As for Memoirs, I understand both sides of the issue and find it regrettable that a suitable Japanese actress was not found to play such a culturally specific role. But I am glad that when none was found the production was not scrapped and that when complaints about the actress's heritage were raised the issue was not buried.

Anime - well.... there is very little of it I like, but then I am not a pre-teen.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen many Japanese movies... I've seen Sukiyaki Western Django if that counts, though it wasn't that great I thought... :-/

I haven't seen it nor have considered seeing it because of that.

I like Zhang Ziyi, but that pissed me off, because of the differences between the Japanese and Chinese(I fight on an almost daily basis about how they are NOT the same, and I'm Hispanic, yet it still grates my nerves*probably because people think that Puerto Rican and Mexican is the same thing, and I ******* hate that. I'm NOT a Mexican!!!)

Yeah, I'm not Japanese, but I find that more offensive than MoaG; clearly you have no idea of how many different kinds of manga and anime there is catering to VERY different types of people.

wow, even after Gran Torino?
lol gosh, even i felt offended by his character... and i'm white! lol

Clint Eastwood is not the character from Gran Torino, he is an actor playing the part of a racist.

well i knew that much, my post was more to make a joke. guess i should be more clear next time. lol my bad.

The "last" Samurai was a white guy. That concept is such a slap in the face right?

I'm guilty of being unaware of the facial differences between Chinese and Japanese. I watch a lot of Asian film, but because of so much role reversal I still can't tell the difference.

(The above is obviously a joke.)

They seem to do that all the time, like they're under the impression that all Asians are the same :confused: