Following criticism over "Iron Fist' for casting the Caucasian actors to play Asian character, now the adaptation of Japanese classic manga "Death Note" draws similar controversy. Furthermore, petition to boycott the movie has been launched and more than 11,000 people have signed the petition.
Hollywood has become the target of the whitewashing controversy for some time, and Netflix is already caught in the middle of the controversy for the second time. This time the adaptation "Death Note," of one of the most popular Japanese manga has become the target for casting Caucasian actors to play Light Yagami and Misa Amane character. Furthermore, the character name is also changed into Light Turner and Mia Sutton, CBC reported.
Following the controversy in "Death Note," an online petition has been launched, aiming to get 15,000 signatures. Up to now, more than 14,000 people has signed the petition. The initiator, Sarah Rose increase the target, which initially aimed for 12,0000 signatures.
The whitewashing culture of Hollywood has been going for decades before "Death Note" issue arise. However, with so many adaptations of the story about cultures and people from other ethnicities and races, people are aware that such culture should not be tolerated. Some of the example of the whitewashing are in the movies "Argo," "Aloha," Netflix original series "Iron Fist" and the latest one is "Ghost in the Shell."
In "Argo" Ben Affleck is cast to play Tony Mendez, CIA operative in Iran while Emma Stone played a character named Allison Ng, a half Hawaiian native and half Chinese in 2015 movie "Aloha." In "Iron Fist" Finn Jones played Danny Rand, whom people expected to be a Chinese or East Asian character. While in "Ghost in the Shell," Scarlett Johannson played the character of The Major, a counter-cyberterrorism field commander from Hanka Robotics Technology, an adaptation from the manga written by Masamune Shirow.
Netflix once again caught in the whitewashing controversy in the "Death Note". Watch the trailer below:
