The Mighty Whitey trope was however inevitable, it was in the Japan storyarc it was based on as well (and actually a great deal worse, if I well recall). But I disagree it was that bad. Yukio, for instance, is saved in precisely one occasion by Wolverine after saving him some three different times within the same scene. She even gets to kill Viper, the more recognizable antagonist (for that matter, so does Mariko, as it is her knife-throwing act that undoes the Big Bad for good). The movie has three recognizable, competent and heroic asian characters, and about three villainous ones, which is good enough for me. Not nearly as bad the original comic book arc, and not as bad as you're saying, I think.
I agree with the excess of antagonists though.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."
Just curious, what made you think Yukio was in love with Logan ? She came up more as a Platonic Life Partner to me....
I agree with the replies. It's quite an enjoyable action flick. And this is also the opinion of another Asian troper who prefers Cyclops than Wolverine by the myriads.
First of all, it's Wolverine, Mighty Whitey incarnate. Besides, it's not the only film where a lot of the Japanese villains despise the Caucasian protagonist. Look at Karate Kid II (which I even see a lot of parallels), where Sato and Chozen are all about honor and against cowards wherein Chozen himself is the biggest Dirty Coward.
I don't really mind the number of antagonists. After all, it's quite the truth when it comes to dynasties and zaibatsus (look at Tekken!), wherein someone in the family is bound to kill off a family member to overthrow and take the "throne" for himself. You don't really need to flesh out the character/motivations for that. Within a short time span, the feature villain Silver Samurai even managed to be one of Logan's biggest threats, akin to Venom who did quite a lot in the last few minutes of Spider-Man 3. Funnier thing both films are released by Fox.
Yukio felt more of a Jubilee/Rogue surrogate in the film, but as the Miho to Logan's Dwight McCarthy.
Well, I expected the trope to be invoked but I didn't expect it to be that bad. Of the two sympathetic Asian men, one was an extra whose fear of Logan was meant to be laughed at, and the other was a Punch Card Villain who repented at the last minute and got killed, robbing him of any impact his redemption may have had - I would've preferred if they had let Harada survive and join Yukio on Logan's journey. Speaking of Yukio, Shingen had said Logan "touched her friend, and yet she still wanted him," which some may say is completely untrue, but Yukio doesn't deny this and looks troubled while she's hearing it. Maybe I misinterpreted it. I just find it a bit disheartening that it's being compared to a movie that's almost 20 years old and race roles still have not made any progress. It's somewhat justified in that it's partly Truth in Television but only by a small amount.
Still, I liked the movie for what it was, don't get me wrong. I just think that they could've downplayed the whole Mighty Whitey trope a bit rather than diving into the deep end, full on.
At the very least, an Asian proved to be more than a match against the nigh-godly white guy.
I'd suggest you to see the two-decade old source material where the film is adapted to (watered down significantly, given Frank Miller's gritty storytelling). After all, it's the Yakuza that are involved, despite the Yashidas' samurai origins. Even if it's turned into Wolverine in Sicily against an Italian mob, China against the Triads, clearly they will be portrayed as a formidable (and obviously non-noble) group, regardless of race. Adding Sunfire into the cast just to have another Japanese hero could just have deviated a lot on the plot that revolves on Wolverine in the first place.
I'd be willing to overlook the Mighty Whitey part given it's more or less a good comic-film conversion. About the bigotry part, consider it Actor Allusion for the thespians of Shingen and Noburo (Last Samurai and Tokyo Drift respectively) where their roles hate gaijin on a much bigger scale. Shingen is the (IIRC) sole bigot in the film, a trait taken straight from the comics Harada/Silver Samurai.
For me, it would be interesting to hear more of the Japanese side about the gaijin-thing in general that various stories/movies have a penchant too.
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Great Wolverine Movie, Bad Everything Else
I went into the movie with intensely low expectations due to Origins: Wolverine being significantly less than perfect, to say the least. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by The Wolverine. Logan's development was great, the fight scenes are awesome, and we get some honestly badass brawls that don't involve Logan at all; Yukio's battles were just as good, if not more so, because they were less focused on superpowered mutant brawls and more about fluid combat choreography, which is always a plus in my book. Mariko, the main love interest, also gets a few whacks in, but in a movie where Yukio is present, she comes off as almost laughably ineffectual.
The enemies are really unfocused in this movie, though; there's way too many people vying for way too many different things. Intrigue is great, but The Wolverine doesn't pull it off well at all. A lot of villains seem to just want to do things For The Evulz, and it really creates some sort of bizarre disconnect when it comes to trying to understand villain motivations. Chief among these is Viper, who does everything she does for... no reason. At least with the other villains there is a reason - money, power, and glory. She had no development, no reasons behind her actions, and no real purpose other than to serve as another minion to fight at the end.
In fact, the villain thing leads to my greatest annoyance regarding the movie: it is upholds the Mighty Whitey trope to an almost ridiculous, near-parody level. Every Asian man in the movie (excepting one) is insanely, unrepentantly evil, engaging in deeds such as killing their own children, kidnapping, cheating, and all sorts of other nasty things. By the end of the movie, the two Japanese girls were both head over heels in love with Logan, the brave, strong "kuzuri" who saved them from the vile Japanese men. As an Asian man watching the movie, it struck me as writing that was almost laughably bad, especially when Wolverine confronted a man for cheating on his fiancé despite sleeping with that same girl not fifteen minutes ago. Even The Last Samurai was better than this.
That being said, The Wolverine is an really good summer action flick. It has fun characters, great battles, and a good development arc for the protagonist. It's worth a watch, especially if you're a X-Men fan.