01-12-2015, 10:31 AM
I had this queued in my iTunes for some time because it got good reviews and being Asian, I can totally relate to B.D. Wong's and John Cho's comments about how Sulu was a pioneering Asian male actor. I even referenced this in an article I wrote back in 2000 (see concluding paragraph <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=280">http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/art ... rticle=280</a><!-- m -->). And given my childhood Asian male role models were Sulu and Bruce Lee (actually there were a ton of Hong Kong action stars too, but that wasn't until later and no one outside the Kung Fu circles knew who I was talking about). I read the Variety listings every month for the changes with Netflix and was excited to see it was coming this month, and have been waiting for it to show up on the New Releases section, but it still hasn't. So many thanks to you Greg, for pointing out that it was now available.
The doc was decent and I agree with Greg on the whole. I do remember when Takei got involved with politics. Actually, so did Checkov, which is why he wasn't involved with the ST animated series. Erickson, the three-armed red alien replaced him. Koenig's appearance in this doc was sad, as despite all of Takei's liver spots, he's still in great shape for his age, while Koenig looked really old. Nichelle still looked good and showed off her eye-crossing skills. Shatner and Nimoy, well, we've seen them recently and they've kept up. As for the infamous Shatner/Takei feud, there's certainly a lot more to that then they present to the public. They are the most successful of the ST crew, even counting the successive generations. I suspect there's some ghastly skeleton in that closet, pun fully intended.
As for his homosexuality, I remember thinking how odd Takei's acting style was - how hammy - but then all of the original Star Trek cast were total hams. That's what made it work so well. I also remember when he busted out the cape for ST3 and sashayed through that film like he was sauntering down Castro street. I remember thinking 'Naaaaah. srsly? Say it ain't so.' Not that I have any issue with homosexuality, mind you. After working for years at AFS on Folsom with PPFY, well.... nuf said there, right? But still, it bummed me out at the time. After all, that was the 80s, long before Glee.
The internment stuff was interesting to me too personally, as some of my family went through that. Some were even paid restitution. Most of my family was in Hawaii, which was isolated in its own weird way. There were still a lot of WWII stories. My grandmother was a teacher and the teachers and religious leaders were shut down first on Hawaii. But my grandfather was a commander of the 100th, an all-Japanese battalion, so my immediate family had some unique privilege. My mom remembers Pearl Harbor (the repercussions from the blasts cracked her fishtank at home, which was far from the docks) and still has a few Hawaii dollars in a safe deposit box, special marked money used during WWII just in case Hawaii was ever taken.
I would have liked to have seen a little more on Takei's struggles as an Asian actor. Takei's work for the gay community is inspiring, but there are far more gays on TV than Asian males today. It was great seeing him in those old TV shows. I saw the Twilight Zone episode he was in last year. I must look up those Mission Impossible and Hawaii 5-0 eps (MI = Season 1: Episode 10 'The Carriers, H50 = Season 8: Episode 5 'Death's Name is SAM' - thank you, internetz!).
The doc was decent and I agree with Greg on the whole. I do remember when Takei got involved with politics. Actually, so did Checkov, which is why he wasn't involved with the ST animated series. Erickson, the three-armed red alien replaced him. Koenig's appearance in this doc was sad, as despite all of Takei's liver spots, he's still in great shape for his age, while Koenig looked really old. Nichelle still looked good and showed off her eye-crossing skills. Shatner and Nimoy, well, we've seen them recently and they've kept up. As for the infamous Shatner/Takei feud, there's certainly a lot more to that then they present to the public. They are the most successful of the ST crew, even counting the successive generations. I suspect there's some ghastly skeleton in that closet, pun fully intended.
As for his homosexuality, I remember thinking how odd Takei's acting style was - how hammy - but then all of the original Star Trek cast were total hams. That's what made it work so well. I also remember when he busted out the cape for ST3 and sashayed through that film like he was sauntering down Castro street. I remember thinking 'Naaaaah. srsly? Say it ain't so.' Not that I have any issue with homosexuality, mind you. After working for years at AFS on Folsom with PPFY, well.... nuf said there, right? But still, it bummed me out at the time. After all, that was the 80s, long before Glee.
The internment stuff was interesting to me too personally, as some of my family went through that. Some were even paid restitution. Most of my family was in Hawaii, which was isolated in its own weird way. There were still a lot of WWII stories. My grandmother was a teacher and the teachers and religious leaders were shut down first on Hawaii. But my grandfather was a commander of the 100th, an all-Japanese battalion, so my immediate family had some unique privilege. My mom remembers Pearl Harbor (the repercussions from the blasts cracked her fishtank at home, which was far from the docks) and still has a few Hawaii dollars in a safe deposit box, special marked money used during WWII just in case Hawaii was ever taken.
I would have liked to have seen a little more on Takei's struggles as an Asian actor. Takei's work for the gay community is inspiring, but there are far more gays on TV than Asian males today. It was great seeing him in those old TV shows. I saw the Twilight Zone episode he was in last year. I must look up those Mission Impossible and Hawaii 5-0 eps (MI = Season 1: Episode 10 'The Carriers, H50 = Season 8: Episode 5 'Death's Name is SAM' - thank you, internetz!).
Shadow boxing the apocalypse