It’s not a crime, but it’s certainly something to unpack. It’s hard to call it offensive, exactly, and yet, it’s not devoid of a kind of opportunism. That’s where the exhaustion kicked in.Īs it turns out, Isle of Dogs is a kind of perfect artifact for our current-day conversation around cultural appropriation, if it can even still be called that. It had been half a year since we did the Ghost in the Shell outrage shuffle, but the dots were failing to connect to Anderson’s highbrow doggy-puppet movie. American cinema, from schlocky action to critical-darling indies, still has a long way to go when it comes to depicting - or not depicting, as the case may be - Asian people and cultures. And the largely non-Asian voice cast (Yoko Ono was one of a few exceptions, and an extremely Andersonian one at that). But for those of us who reluctantly still keep a candle burning for Anderson’s early filmography, and love adorable dogs, there was reason to hope that Isle could do better. Darjeeling, which somehow managed to turn an entire country and culture into a prop for white enlightenment, and look really chic while doing it, was a bad example of such appropriation. The thing is, Anderson hasn’t done anything in a while, if ever, to convince me that those are his hands, but I like to think I’m always down for a pleasant surprise. I’m of the belief that the phenomenon commonly known as cultural appropriation can be benign, even illuminating in the right artist’s hands.
#FUNNY JAPANESE HAIKI OFFENSIVE PC#
Times in particular asks more questions than it answers, but thanks to the diligent coverage of everyone from Entertainment Weekly to Fox News (when was the last time Fox News cared about Wes Anderson’s honor? I’m guessing never), it became the central proof that the PC police were out to get America’s most symmetrical auteur.
What’s louder to me, this time around, is the contingent of people seemingly broadsided by this conversation, and furious it’s even taking place. It’s not a new conversation it’s been happening over the course of Anderson’s filmography, probably starting in earnest with the India-set The Darjeeling Limited in 2007. In the week since Isle of Dogs’ initial limited release, a measured, varied, and nuanced discussion about Wes Anderson’s use of Japanese culture - and other cultures in general - has happened in fits and starts. I’m going to be a good critic and reserve judgement until the week of March 23.
When the first trailer arrived for Isle of Dogs last fall, I had three immediate, consecutive reactions: One: Oh, no.
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