Edward T.
Kouhai
- 13 Apr 2016
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The Green Hornet was originally created as a radio series and comic book series. The character of Kato (as an Asian) existed for decades before the movie and everybody knew Kato was an Asian man. It would have been strange if they had not used an Asian actor to play the part. While it is very very very true that Hollywood has a long history of unfair treatment of every minority and that they even used white actors made up to resemble Asians rather than just hire Asian actors, in this one case (at least) of Bruce Lee playing Kato, they were not trying to hide the fact he was Asian.
Historically, both the Green Hornet and Kato wore masks while doing their crime fighting activities.
About three years ago, a movie called 47 Ronin was released and Keanu Reaves (Canadian native, part Chinese) played the lead Ronin. I was surprised by that casting of Reaves.