"The Asian actors in Big Trouble in Little China all seemed to like the script. However, this was not true of several activists who felt it was racist. They objected to what they called “white stereotypes” of Asians. The Fu Manchu sort of thing. One gentleman, Henry Der of San Francisco, did all he could do to get me fired and get an Asian director hired in my place. He wanted me fired simply because I was white. Protests were staged, even letters were written. Der said in effect, “Never forget that this is a movie directed by a white man for white audiences.” It was insane. But because the Asian actors stood beside me as a director, the protests went nowhere."

John Carpenter in John Carpenter: The Prince of Darkness, a collection of interviews about his films curated by Gilles Boulenger

while I appreciate BTILC, primarily for how cartoonish it is, it is also unequivocally problematic/straight up racist and it so gross that John Carpenter would describe Der’s quote as “insane.” just shut your face, old white dude. you are not allowed to talk.

(via poopballs)

Nyow:

When you can learn how to direct masterpieces, and change film history, then you can criticize the man. Until then, you can kindly sit down and shut the fuck up and watch something else if BTILC bothers you that much.

(via 6big6boss6)

I guess you can’t read. I said I liked it. You can appreciate something while acknowledging it’s flawed. I believe Carpenter is highly talented but that does not fucking excuse any racism inherent to BTiLC. For fuck’s sake, you can criticize film without being a filmmaker, too. That excuse for ignoring problematic elements in media is always so off to me. How does that even make sense?