Asian-American Actress Arden Cho Speaks Out About Death Note Whitewashing

Teen Wolf's Arden Cho Wades in on the US Death Note Whitewashing Furore

2/12/2015

Twitter has been in uproar, cheering on and retweeting US actress Arden Cho's comments about the US live-action Death Note movie, and its strangely Caucasian casting choices thus far.

Known for her bad-ass role as Kira Yukimura in TV drama Teen Wolf, Arden Cho was scathing about Death Note casting overlooking Asian actors in the USA. She initially Tweeted:

Arden Cho Tweet about Death Note whitewashing

Source: Twitter

Death Note whitewashing Arden Cho quotes Viola Davis

Source: Twitter

Then, in response to Lauren, a commenter who wrote, 'MANY talented Asian actors/actresses to choose from and yet they whitewash the whole film!' Arden posted:

Arden Cho Death Note movie tweet re Asian actors

Source: Twitter

Nor had she finished there.

Arden Cho heartbroken Death Note whitewashing

Source: Twitter

Before coming back for more:

Arden Cho tweets about whitewashing Japanese characters Death Note

Source: Twitter

Source: Twitter

Arden Cho takes down a troll re Death Note whitewashing

Source: Twitter

Finally, Arden Cho had a greeting for Edward Zo (possibly tipped off by the furore on Twitter regarding her comments about whitewashing Death Note):

Source: Twitter

Asian-American actor Edward Zo had previously - and quite famously - been vocal on the subject of Death Note US live-action movie auditions excluding Asian actors. Silence means approval and neither Arden nor Edward are prepared to be silent on this issue. Nor are a whole lot of other people judging by the amount of retweets and replies each exposee and protest prompted.

What do you think?

6 Comments

Bill

2/12/2015 22:57:17

EVERY Death Note live-action show or movie out there now is Japanese, and cast exclusively by Asians.

I think it's good that we have some diversity for once so other people get to enjoy Death Note aswell, because let's face it, only manga/anime fans know about Death Note in the western world.

Besides, they seem to have a problem with the cast not being Asian, but they don't care the story won't take place in Japan. So is this really a keeping-canon problem? If you dislike a work of art because of the actor's race, they have a term for this: racism

Death Note is not a historical story, so having actors of a specific race or looks is entirely irrelevant.

lua

3/12/2015 07:35:46

you're forgetting the story is japanese. you seem to expect something produced in japan to have the western world as its target. it is a japanese story, with japanese characters, written by japanese people mainly for other japanese people. why should its cast not be japanese? again, it is a japanese story.
and have you asked yourself why the story isn't happening in japan? have you considered that it's happening somewhere so they have an excuse to cast only white people and ignore all the cultural elements in the story?
considering the story itself has plenty of cultural elements (and before you can write them off as irrelevant, i'd like to point out shinigamis, for example. or how plenty of the characters act that would make little to no sense in western cultural contexts), it is, at the very least, lazy to want to try to white-wash this story. can you even say it is the story of death note when the characters are not the same? when the context is not the same? when the cultural elements are not the same?
if the fact it's a japanese story with japanese elements and japanese characters bothers you, you have plenty of western media to entertain yourself with. there is no reason to take this story and make it into a completely different thing that is only keeping the same name as the original just to turn it into the western story it was never meant to be.

Lyn

4/4/2017 19:47:18

"I think it's good that we have some diversity for once..."

I mean, just reflect on that for a minute. Look back at decades of American cinema and entertainment and then tell me what diversity is supposed to look like.

Bill

3/12/2015 21:36:19

I know where you're getting at, you want the story to stay as original as possible, but they aren't going to make an American remake that takes place in Japan, with Asians actors and spoken in Japanese, and I don't know why so many seem to hope or expect this.

Besides I still think there already are plenty all-Japanese Death Note movie adaptations (and very recently a drama series aswell). I think it's good they adapt the story for a different population, and if you don't like that version no one is holding a gun to people's head and forcing them to watch. Maybe the movie will be great, maybe it will suck, but anything is possible even if it's different.

lua

4/12/2015 06:09:09

you don't seem to know where i'm getting at i the slightest. an american remake isn't expected to be the original work but it is expected to recreate it as faithfully as possible. telling a similar story with none of the key elements only makes for a cheap copy.
and there is no reason for the story to change that much. an american remake can easily be set in japan (ju-on/ the grudge is an example of that). an american remake can have a director, screenplay writer or a whole crew of japanese people who are culturally aware and know what they are doing with their own cultural elements (hideo nakata with the ring two). an american remake can have a japanese cast of english speakers.
it goes without saying that no one is forced to go looking for media from other countries. it also goes without saying that you can't demand those medias to conform to your cultural background and context just because it is more comfortable for you that way.

kay

8/12/2015 01:44:19

People also seem to forget that an American remake can be set in America and be done with Asian actors- they forget that there are asians in America. Remakes such as this ignore the existence of asians in a whole.

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