If you’re a modern film-goer, a disturbing moment comes a short way into Blake Edwards’s iconic 1960s romance, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Audrey Hepburn’s character, Holly Golightly, comes home to her apartment late having forgotten her key and awakens her building superintendent, Mr. Yunioshi played by Mickey Rooney, who chastises her:
“Missee Go-right-ree, Missee Go-right-ree,” he yells. “I protesssst. … You disturbuh me.”
That’s right. Mr. Yunioshi is Japanese, and he speaks with a heavy accent. As played by Rooney, he’s a buffoon. And to top it off, the film-makers have chosen to provide Rooney with huge buck-teeth and kooky large glasses that look like they’re increasing his near-sightedness rather than correcting it. There’s really only one phrase to describe it: racist stereotype.
Critics have another word for it – yellowface, or the portrayal of an Asian character by a white actor. Admittedly, Mr. Yunioshi occupies a very small space in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but he’s like the tip of an ugly iceberg. Pre-Civil Rights American film is full of this sort of thing. In 1956, for example, John Wayne played Genghis Khan in The Conqueror. Peter Lorre, a Jewish actor, played the title character in eight “Mr. Moto” films in the late 1930s. In Disney’s The Aristocats (1970), Paul Winchell voiced a feline character named “Chinese Cat,” whose only contribution to the catchy tune “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat” is lines like “Shanghai Hong Kong Egg Foo Yung. Fortune cookie always wrong.” This is accompanied by his hitting the cymbal on his head until his eyes cross and playing his piano with his chopsticks. Hi-larious.
We no longer accept Caucasian actors in blackface, why would we not comprehend that those in “yellowface” as just as offensive? Perhaps we dismiss these sorts of images as the products of a less enlightened time, but we shouldn’t. A more difficult question is how should a more “enlightened” audience react?
We realize that this is an odd question to find in a “why we picked this film” essay. It would seem more of a reason not to pick this film. But Edwards’s movie is a classic. It should be watched. And its weaknesses as well as its strengths should be recognized, discussed, and accounted for. We might dismiss Rooney’s portrayal simply by saying “that was considered funny at that time,” but really a statement like that requires unpacking. Funny for whom? At whose expense? How does a culture make such an assumption? What is the result of a mocking, derogatory portrayal for the American community at large? Why did yellowface continue to be acceptable long after whites in blackface (or as Native Americans) became unacceptable?
You think it didn’t? Have you seen Balls of Fury (2007)? What is Christopher Walken (as Feng) doing?
Sadly, racial stereotypes like Mr. Yunioshi persist, in many forms and in diverse media. It’s up to us to recognize offensive images when they occur, begin the conversation that explores our relationship to them, and take steps to ensure that such derogatory ethnic humor never goes unremarked again.
R. Findlay
Film Club Adviser
