Beyond Breakfast at Tiffany's

I just watched Breakfast at Tiffany's for the first time and I really enjoyed it. It was light, it was funny, it was cute, it was romantic = a good romantic comedy. Audrey was so playful and absolutely stunning. George was so cute, how could you not fall in love with a writer?

Its amazing how you can get a snapshot of how society was like during that time... because a few things did bug me about the movie which shows that times have changed.

Mr Yunioshi was played by a white actor, Mickey Rooney, and that annoyed me. Back then, Asian characters were often played by white actors. Of course Mr Yunioshi was portrayed as a weird (not in a good way), creepy, snarky character and i just thought he was used as a mockery of asians. This film was released in 1961, an era when racism was part of the norm and was rarely condemned. The whites had the most privilege (and still do) compared to all the other races while African Americans were fighting for their rights.

Mickey Rooney as Mr Yunioshi

Mickey Rooney

However, Blake Edwards did talk about casting Mickey Rooney as Mr Yunioshi in the 2006 short documentary, Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Making of a Classic. He said he did not think about the implications of casting a white actor to play a Japanese character and now "looking back, I wish I had never done it... and I would give anything to be able to recast it"

Just a few days ago, I read about Anna May Wong, the first Chinese actress in Hollywood, and she experienced a lot of discrimination and racism during her time. She often lost roles of Asian characters to white actors and the times she got a role she often played the antagonist, the villain, that would be killed in the end. The way Asians were portrayed in Hollywood created a stereotype of Asians being greedy, evil and ruthless. Anna May Wong's characters would never "get the man" in the films which is an unlikely ending to a film today.

Another thing that bugged me was when Paul said that he owned Holly, I don't know what way that was intended but women aren't objects that a man "owns". My liking for Paul lessened when he said that. The same idea  of him "owning" Holly was repeated when he also said to her "you belong to me" which is not the same as "you belong with me". It just did not seem right for Paul's character to say that but then again maybe it was just representative of the men during that time and the way society viewed women.

I love watching movies from way back or movies set way back but i just can't help think that if I were living in those times, i would have a terrible time and not have many opportunities. I often hear people say things like "oh i wish i lived in the 50s" because they think it looks like a "cool" time to live in and their lives wouldn't be ruled by technology. Me, on the other hand, would not like to live in the 50s. Sure, i love the clothes, the movies, the music, but i would not like to live in the 50s because i would probably be treated like crap. I'm fine with living in 2013 (even though technology does dominate my life), its not great nor perfect but things are moving forward.

- Freak out

by the way, heres a fun fact for you:

Breakfast at Tiffany's relates to To Kill A Mockingbird in a sneaky way. Breakfast at Tiffany's was initially a novella written by Truman Capote who was the basis of the character Dill in To Kill A Mockingbird as Harper Lee, the author, was childhood friends with him.