We've been voicing our feelings about Breakfast at Tiffany's for years now, which is a bit sad since the movie is 47 years old. Still, the racism of the Mickey Rooney character was too much to let go, even with a movie so beloved, and it continues to teach a valuable lesson about the dangers of "yellowface."We're proud to say that our voice has been heard, and is now part of the Breakfast at Tiffany's Paramount Centennial Collection, which was released this January. The remastered edition includes a good deal of new material, including a documentary called "Mr. Yunioshi: An Asian Perspective". The segment stars our very own Guy Aoki, Phil Lee, and Jeffrey Mio, as well as actress Marilyn Tokuda, and has been getting great reviews so far.
A sample:
Colin Jacobson from DVD Mag:"It proves pretty interesting. I worried that “Perspective” would do little more than act as an apology for the awful Yunioshi character, but it doesn’t. Correctly, the participants regard the portrayal as a product of its time, but they don’t simply excuse it. This turns into a thought-provoking chat."
Frank Sifaldi at Einsiders.com: "The reason I was glad to see this included is because I remember the first time I saw this film, I was a bit disgusted to see Mr. Rooney is such a horrible, comically stereotyped role as an Asian...It appears that time has healed the wounds of 47 years ago when some Chinese people wouldn't go see the film because of the unjust portrayal of their people. I hope that in the future, ethnic persons will be able to get their roles played by persons of that ethnicity."
Jeremy Thomas at 411 mania: "It's certainly not the kind of featurette that you would expect to see on a celebratory DVD set, and Paramount deserves some praise for addressing this one issue with the film quite candidly and in a balanced way."
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