In the roll of secondary characters, only Boun (Izaac Wang) and Little Noi (Thalia Tran) can boast SEA ancestry. The main antagonist, Namaari, is played by British Chinese Gemma Chan, the same as another supporting character Benedict Wong. Awkwafina, the other titular character, is Korean American along with Daniel Dae Kim and Sandra Oh. Now, even though they had two writers of Southeast Asian descent writing the script and Vietnamese American Kelly Marie Tran to star as the titular Raya, ALL other major characters cast in the film are East Asian in descent.
I know “cultural appropriation” is a loaded term, and I am not above criticising some creatives of doing it when I find it was done disrespectfully or ignorantly (cough live-action Mulan cough), but I don’t see it as an absolute bad thing since admittedly, the line between appropriation and reverence is a mile-wide no man’s land of grey. Like with Moana, Disney built a committee called the “Southeast Asia Story Trust” which okays whatever bits of culture they would be appropriating for the film. I will confess right now that I simply do not have the cultural competency to see the faults that real Pacific Islanders see in that film, and as a result, Moana‘s story and themes resonated very strongly with me.
Now, Moana is one of my favourite Disney films of all time but in spite of all its best intentions in consulting experts from the cultures they were representing in their “Oceanic Story Trust”, they still did not escape without controversies. Okay I know that sounds cynical but I am realistic about these things-the House of Mouse is in it for the dinero and if they are somehow able to stumble into successfully giving respectful representation to Southeast Asia, it’s a win-win situation all around. There will not be major spoilers.īeing a Malaysian and Southeast Asian (and literally writing a review blog called A Naga of the Nusantara), I was naturally excited to see that Disney is finally turning their profit machine to exploiting my regional culture. The second half will be about the story, plot, characters, visuals, etc.
DISCLAIMER: The first half of this review will specifically be addressing the cultural representation aspect of the film, since it is something I am uniquely positioned to contribute to.
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