Throughout the course of WWII, Hollywood transposed its focus from Chinese to Japanese villainy, and instead utilized the Chinese as the depiction of what Asians should be, attempting to mend their relationship with the nation and its people. This all shifted in 1949 with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China under the rule of Mao Zedong. Yellow Peril sentiments abruptly reacquainted themselves with the same pre-war disdain they held for the Chinese and became linked to the Red Menace.¹ The Chinese now not only represented a threat to the American people, but to the entire world. These sentiments were infused into the film The Manchurian Candidate where the sinister Dr. Yen Lo delights in mentally torturing his captives, brainwashing them, and utilizing them for murder. The film even goes so far as to depict Dr. Yen Lo brainwashing a crowd while standing in front of menacing portraits of Stalin and Mao Zedong. Connections to the originations of the Hollywood Asian villian are made throughout the film and Dr. Yen Lo is described as “that Chinese cat…smiling like Fu Manchu.”² This statement confirms the notoriousness of this trope and how deeply it has been engrained into society since its beginning. As a spy for Communist China living in the United States, Dr. Yen Lo is shown appearing seemingly innocent as he pauses his nefarious plans to shop at Macy’s and buy gifts for his wife.³ This blend between cruelty and assimilation reveals the fear of communist spies within the United States and the conception that assimilation was not enough to keep Chinese Americans from being corrupted by the ways of their ethnic nation. The ease with which American culture and Hollywood increasingly regarded the Japanese as benevolent and the Chinese as the, once again, evil and diabolical threat indicates how little Americans distinguish between different nationalities of Asian peoples and the harbored Yellow Peril sentiments that persist in society.⁴

Rising Sun further perpetuates the Menacing Villain trope with its depiction of Japanese businessmen that pose a threat to the American industry, threatening to take it over through deceit and murder. This villainous form was influenced by the U.S. economic recession of the 1980s that led many American workers and business to resent the growing economy of Japan and feel as though such corporations were ‘stealing’ U.S. markets. Such fears were present throughout much of American society as one 1992 poll reveals: a year before Rising Sun was released, it was reported that “Americans rank the Japanese economic threat higher than the Russian military threat.” The United States had been in a recession for eighteen months when the poll was conducted and three years, Japanese corporations purchased several high-profile American businesses and real estate.¹⁰ Such fears of a Japanese takeover are evident when one considers Chinese American Vincent Chin who was brutally murdered by white autoworkers in Detroit, Michigan on June 19, 1982 due to their belief that he was Japanese and blamed Japan for the current recession.¹¹ Rising Sun takes ahold of this Japanese enemy and creates a convoluted plot that centers on a Japanese corporation’s bid to buy Microcon, a leading-edge American computer company, that is vital for developing technology for the U.S. military. Framing the film in terms of war Michael Crichton, author of the novel version of the film written in 1992, says in an interview, “the Japanese have invented a new kind of trade—adversarial trade, trade like war, trade intended to wipe out the competition.”¹² The director of the film echoed such fears in later interviews and didn’t shy away from fully portraying the Japanese film characters as shifty, criminal, and an overall threat to American society. The film also exacerbates the Japanese enemy by suggesting that such market behavior allows wealthy, Japanese businessmen to exploit American women. The character of Lieutenant Graham searches a white, female victim’s purse and after finding bills, Japanese credit cards, and Japanese cigarettes states, “These little guys eat shit in Tokyo. Crammed into subways, working in big companies. They come here and they’re rich and free. They all want to fuck a Rose Bowl queen. And then they kill the Rose Bowl queen on the Nakamoto boardroom table”¹⁴

Die Another Day was produced in the wake of George W. Bush’s designation of North Korea as part of the “axis of evil” in his State of the Union speech and North Korea’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in January 2002. This film acts as a U.K./U.S. coproduction that pairs legendary agent 007, James Bond, with U.S. NSA agent, Jinx. The film’s central villain is a North Korean colonel by the name of Zao who seeks world domination through the utilization of a weapon that harnesses the power of the sun. James Bond is also shown to be tortured by various North Koreans and has subsequent nightmares throughout the film following such events; this reveals the Cold War paranoia of U.S. society and the remnants of North Korean suspicions following the Korean War. Alongside such post-Cold War sentiments, the events of 9/11 led to further tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Post-9/11, the White House and the Pentagon framed North Korea as a grand threat in possession of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons that would be used to manipulate the Western world. The fear of North Korea providing weapons to various terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda also existed and are evident in the portrayal of Zao with such a nefarious, world-ending weapon.¹⁷  This film highlights yet another form of Hollywood’s ability to act on political and societal conflict, portraying themes within films that are often harmful and perpetuate gross stereotypes of Asian Americans.¹⁸