Book Club - Siang Lu’s The Whitewash

Today I have got something truly unique; thought provoking, puzzling, laugh out loud funny. Siang Lu’s The Whitewash might just be the whole package Brood Empire was meant to be a landmark for Asian representation in Hollywood. With a $350 million budget and a lead who looked like he'd been carved from stone this would be THE film that broke through and put all the subtle and overt racist stereotypes to bed. Instead production was dogged from the start, the lead got pulped in an ill advised cage fight and the whole set leaked worse than Tom Holland on a bender.  The Whitewash is the unofficial history of the rise and fall of Brood Empire detailing not only the film’s unseemly demise but its origins in the anals of racist representation of Asia and Asians throughout 20th century filmmaking.     ------- The Whitewash is told in a documentary style lead by the team at Click Bae - and online gossip rag that specializes in entertainment news and celebrity gossip of the most salacious kind.  Click Bae have secured exclusive access to JK Jr, the superhero physiqued Hong Kong actor who has been cast in the leading role in Brood Empire. The film itself is an adaptation of the cult novels of Yu Guan featuring his secret agent Brando X - a Chinese James Bond who inverts all the tropes fighting a white supervillain seekins to subjugate the eastern world. About now I feel the need to acknowledge that I am not much of a cinephile and there were definitely moments in The Whitewash were fiction and reality blurred in a way that I couldn’t separate. Because this is film history with an incredible alternative narrative inserted in ways that blur reality. As the title suggests, The Whitewash explores the ways that White Culture (in this case cinema) has a tendency to pick, choose and bleach aspects of other cultures for its own entertainment and edification. Alongside the fly on the wall access to the development of Brood Empire we are treated to a whistle stop history of Asian representation in Hollywood; from its inception in villainous caricatures through to the edification of martial arts as the savior of the blockbuster. The Whitewash is very aware of its source material and does not miss a trick in satirizing the film industry, the media-industrial complex, cults of celebrity and even all of us if we are foolish enough to uncritically consume what is dished up to us across multi-media platforms. The broad thrust of the plot is the rise and fall of the film Brood Empire, as it seeks to break free of the Hollywood stereotypes only to fall victim to the machine. This is a gross oversimplification though, as the reader is treated to a deviously woven narrative consisting of an ensemble cast you’ll play book to keep track of. I truly loved The Whitewash for its irreverent take on the entertainment industry that was knowing but also incisive in its critique. The book shows us an industry known for its exploitation and opens up our eyes to just how much goes on behind the scenes.  And if a terrific story wasn’t enough, The Whitewash is accompanied by a companion website The Beige Index  https://thebeigeindex.com/film/tt1745960