[post_from_work]

>>> I wanted to see what a real East Asian hero in the movies could look like

K-Pop Star Rain in Ninja Assassin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Assassin

Lee Byung-Hun as Storm Shadow in the GI Joe movies (a villian, but a damn cool one): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe:_The_Rise_of_Cobra#Co...

John Cho in the new Star Trek films: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(film)

^Just in case you want to work through a back catalog of kickass Asian dudes in blockbuster films.

I've seen both of the Wolf Warrior films as well. I was curious how they would handle the size/physical strength disparity with the presumably-former-spec-ops American mercenaries. I like the approach taken, where the Chinese protagonists overcome them with agility and dexterity.

As an American, and one who has to deal with the Chinese military as an adversary on a regular basis, I still enjoyed these movies.

[clockwork123512]

Thanks for the recommendations — John Cho was also great in "Searching" (a thriller about a Korean-American who tries to find his daughter who disappears). Old classical literature from China (especially "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" about the power struggles in the fall of the Han dynasty) has been a good source for positive role models, too.

I wish the Wolf Warrior movies could be a way to guide China's government to what it could be (a positive geopolitical force that can help). They're more fantasy than reality, though; I can't ever trust them as a Canadian, after they arbitrarily detained two fellow citizens (the two Michaels) [0] for over 1,000 days as part of a geopolitical game [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Michael_Spavor_an...

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58687071