Sunday Read: George Lucas on the legendary director Akira Kurosawa

On the occasion of the late director Akira Kurosawa's birthday, we present this video of George Lucas and the influence the cinema master had on his Star Wars.

Kurosawas was born March 23, 1910 and died in 1998. He is credited with bringing Japanese cinema to the attention of the Western world.

His first film, Drunken Angel (1948) was critically acclaimed introduced a young, up-andcoming actor, Toshiro Mifune, who went on to act in many more of Kurosawa's films.

RELATED: Rogue One was the 'most Asian' of the Star Wars films

Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it won a Golden Lion (the highest prize given to a film at the festival) in 1951. It has become a classic in film classes. Mifune's spectacular acting skills in the film, paired with the mesmerising portrayal of nature -- rain pouring in endless streams and sunlight escaping through the wooden canopy -- made it a work of art.

Nature and its role was a recurring element in Kurosawa's work. Amidst the violence depicted in some of his samurai movies, he included quiet scenes as a contrast to man's violence, o-- a bubbling brook  flowing through a garden, the click-clock of a bamboo mill, the wind rushing through the reeds -- would often precede a bloody fight.

One of his most commercially successful films and what many critics call Kurosawa's masterpiece, Seven Samurai, drew inspiration from Hollywood westerns. The  3-hour and a half movie, in turn, inspired the Hollywood to make the western The Magnificent Seven.

SEVEN SAMURAI

The final battle in Seven Samurai was fought in a torrential rainstorm.

____________________________________________________________________________

Star Wars' Kelly Marie Tran faces down Earth's racist trolls

This poster of Finn, Rey and Rose, characters from The Last Jedi, must upset the white racist mysogynists.

IN THE TOXICITY of today's racial environment, it is not surprising that some folks could not handle having an Asian/American as a key protagonist in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

In the box-office hit of the newest chapter in the Star Wars saga, Kelly Marie Tran plays Rose Tico, a lowly mechanic who - thrust into the heat of battle between The Resistance and the Galactic Empire - does extraordinary deeds to emerge as the hero.

Tran is also the first Asian cast in a major role in the universe created by Star Wars creator George Lucas.

Apparently, fans of the series have no problem accepting Wookies, Ewoks, Hutts and any number of other sentient aliens, but casting an Asian into a speaking role is a little too much for them.

Much of the negative reaction comes from the human subspecies known as racists, aka white supremacists, aka alt.right, or the followers of the KKK or Nazis.

"Last week, they emerged from hiding to throw a virtual tantrum: first, on fan-made encyclopedia Fandom, trolls swarmed the entry for Tran's character Rose Tico, filling it with racist slurs and changing her character’s name to 'Ching Chong Wing Tong' and calling the character a 'dumbass b*tch.' Clever," notes Salon.

The Star Wars fan site Fandom responded by taking down the tweets and issuing this statement: 

“FANDOM has a zero tolerance policy for vandalism, inclusive of racism and harassment,” the company told Newsweek. “The wiki admins take this very seriously and took the steps to resolve this situation as quickly as possible, including escalation to our team, and subsequent lockdown. This lockdown will remain for the foreseeable future and we will be closely monitoring activity on this wiki.”

Tran, well aware of the historic inroad of Rose Tico, not only in the Star Wars galaxy, far, far away but in the galaxy of Hollywood, handled the racist trolling with grace on her Instagram account:

This isn't the first time racists have attempted to take down the Star Wars saga. When The Force Awakens was in production and it was revealed that John Boyega would have a major role, so-called fans tried to launch the #BoycottStarWarsVII. The fact the boycott was unsuccessful speaks about how narrow the racist point of view represented the saga's fandom.

When asked by the Detroit Free Press about Rose Tico's role in the context of today's world, Tran answered:

"I hear that a lot. ... I think that’s why I get so emotional – because I know how impossible this is. It’s not just because it’s hard to be an actor, which it is when you’re first starting, especially if your parents are from a different world and you didn’t grow up in the entertainment industry. It just seems so far away. It seems truly, completely impossible. Whenever I talk about this I think, “Man, I wish I didn’t have to talk about this” — that in 2017 there were a plethora of different types of people writing and producing and directing and creating, and that we didn’t have to address this. But the fact is, it is 2017 and we have to talk about it, because we’re just not there yet.

"Because I’m an Asian American, and every role I was auditioning for before was sort of this same side character … . To have someone like Rian write something that was so full and rich, and a complete human – I’ve never had that before. I don’t know that many people of color have that often."

Tran, who admits to not being a Star Wars fan before she landed her groundbreaking role, must know by now -- The Force is with her.
____________________________________________________________________________ 

After meeting Rose Tico, where does Star Wars go from here?

Rose Tico is played by actress Kelly Marie Tran.

I FINALLY got to see the latest installment of the Star Wars saga, The Last Jedi. I was not disappointed. I love a good swashbuckler adventure story where the delineation between good and evil are clearly defined.

This is not a review. There are plenty of those lying around the Internet, just Google The Last Jedi. However, this is a warning, if you haven't seen it yet, STOP HERE. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Last Jedi introduces Rose Tico, the first Asian hero featured in an impactful lead role in the space saga. The role of Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) is a pivotal part of the plot. She's not a red shirt. She is not just someone in the background lending a thin air of diversity to a film product.

No. Rose is important and will likely continue to be critical to the storyline into, at least,  Episode 9, the final chapter in what was originally envisioned by creator George Lucas to be a nine-movie story.

That doesn't mean the end of the story in a "galaxy far, far away." Disney is already developing another trilogy that takes place in the same galaxy but not necessarily part of this story line.

The story of The Last Jedi's Rose Tico (and her sister Paige) is the culmination of what began as an innocent question from an Asian/American fan at Comic Con 2015.

During a Q&A for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a couple of young Asian/Americans asked producer J.J. Abrams if there would be any Asians in the upcoming blockbuster. He responded with a joke, "Go Asians! If I had my way, the cast would be all Asians," (nervous laughter from the audience). What he said sounds a bit patronizing. But he continued: 

“I think you’ll be happy to see when you see this film, there are Asians in this film…. We wanted the movie to look the way the world looks. And I think it is important that people see themselves represented in film. I think it is not a small thing. So I completely understand and think your question is hugely important. And it was a big consideration.”

He was referring to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, where three Asian characters were introduced as members of the 5-person crew of the space ship Rogue One. Maybe he had already had an inkling of what could be done in The Last Jedi since these projects are years in the making. In the casting call for Rose Tico, she is described as "any race."

RELATED: Rogue One is the most Asian of Star Wars stories

I'm almost sure the question asked by the fans is something that stuck in the back of Abrams' mind as he helped guide the storylines of the final Lucas-inspired trilogy.

The characters introduced in 'Rogue One' as portrayed by, from left,  Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen and Rez Ahmed could star in their own Star Wars movies to come.

Who knows, maybe the all-Asian cast is a still a possibility for some creative screenplay writer. Here's a couple of storylines that might be developed:

How did Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) from Rogue One become such good friends? Their closeness and care to each other conveyed in silent, knowing looks at each other, hint at a relationship deeper than just being Butch Cassidy-and-Sundance Kid buddies? What planet are they from? In the Star Wars universe, there must be a planet inhabited Asians?

It would be fitting if one of upcoming episodes of the Star Wars depict a planet of an Asian-like civilization and people since the very first Star Wars was inspired by the samurai classic, The Hidden Fortress, directed by Akira Kurosawa, according to George Lucas.

Many of the trappings of the Jedi Knights - The Force, the sword fighting with two hands, the use of the staff (or Bo), fighting with a blade or stick in both hands, all the martial arts moves - are inspired by the Asian martial arts, particularly kendo and eskrima.

In the ending of The Last Jedi, one of the fathiers (the racing creatures) stable boys is telling the legend of Luke Skywalker when the kids' story session is broken up by a supervisor. The stable boy breaks off and "wills" a broom to move into his hands showing that he has the power of The Force. The last thing we see before the credits is the stable boy turning the broom into a light saber. Is Rose capable of harnessing The Force?

And who is Rose? Where did she come from? In Rose's back story, she and her sister were brought up in the pleasure world of Canto Bight as "slaves." I found it interesting when Rose enters the stable, all the fathiers arose to look at the newcomer, as if they could  sense a connection with the seemingly normal mechanic. Does taking care of the fathiers require the use of The Force? Will a new army of Jedi Knights arise from the stables of Canto Bight? 

In a galaxy where anything can happen, Asians can have a presence without the stereotypes we've come to know on this planet.
________________________________________________________________________________

Kelly Marie Tran in tears at premiere of 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'

Vietnamese proud! Kelly Marie Tran's red carpet gown was designed by a Vietnamese fashion designer.

FOR MANY Asian American fans of the Star Wars franchise, it was a historical moment, assuring that there is a future for them in a galaxy far, far away and maybe, even in the tight-knit universe of Hollywood.

For Kelly Marie Tran, the premiere of Star Wars: The Last Jedi last Saturday (Dec. 9) in Los Angeles was a moment she'll never forget as she enters into a universe of glamor, fame with a role of a lifetime cemented into the lore and legend of one of entertainment's most famous movie franchises.

A year ago, people were saying, "Kelly Marie ... who?"as fans tried to determine what role the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants would play. 

And after the premiere of the latest episode of Star Wars, people are saying that she is the "breakout star" of the The Last Jedi, the third act of a three-movie arc in the nine movies depicting the war between the Empire and the The Resistance.

The moment was not lost on Tran, who was resplendent on the red carpet in her red gown designed by Vietnamese designer Thai Nguyen Atelier. Besides being her big break for her acting career, she knows the role her character plays in movie history of Asian Americans and in the American culture in a franchise that began in 1977's first Star Wars, directed by George Lucas, without any people of color to the racially diverse universe being depicted nine movies and 40 years later.

The moment almost got to be too big for newcomer Kelly Marie Tran as she is comforted by costar Daisy Ridley, whose own life was forever changed when she was cast as Rey, the central character in this third Star Wars trilogy, two years ago.

Before she was cast she was just doing odd jobs in L.A. Her biggest claim to fame was a series of Youtube videos for CollegeHumor. Tran says that she was always thought that her big break would come if she was cast as somebody's best friend in a supporting role.

Her role in the Asian/American pop culture continuum was not lost on her when she was asked by Rolling Stone what it meant to be the first Asian/American woman cast in a pivotal role in Star Wars.

"I wish it was just a nice little bonus, because it kind of feels like a lot of pressure in ways, I would love to live in a world where no one person has to represent a very large group of people just purely because of the fact that there's not many of those types of people in movies or TV – or writing or producing or directing. I would like to live in a world where there are a bunch of different types of people doing those things. But obviously we don't, and it's something I think about a lot. I don't take it lightly at all. I think from the moment I got this part - and it was also because this is a Star Wars movie - I just wanted to do the whole thing justice.

"And on a representation standpoint, I wanted to do that justice too. Me and John (Boyega) talked about that: Just the idea that we are people of color, that's something we always address in interviews. We actually had this one moment on set that I still hold really close to my heart. This one day we were shooting this scene and I remember John stopping and saying, "Kelly, we're making history right now" ... and we were. Because not only are we making a Star Wars movie, we have scenes where it's just John and myself."

Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) and Finn (John Boyega) are key protagonists in 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi.'

"Growing up I watched a lot of pop culture] and didn’t really get to see a lot of people that looked like me," she told Entertainment Weekly. "I think that I’m really lucky to be this person, and I get to be part of this franchise. I hope that it is a move in a better direction." 

When she heard she got the role in The Last Jedi she was working as a business assistant. Immediately, she had to act like the life-changing moment had never happened.

“But after I got the role, I had to work for another week!," she told Elle. "Then I told my job, my family, and my friends I was moving to Canada for an indie. I had to Google pictures of Canada to send them! It was so stressful.”

Nevertheless, Tran was quick to put her stamp on the notoriously top-secret saga. “Kelly has an infectious energy and creative spirit that actually ended up influencing her character,” says director Rian Johnson. Rose “may not be glorified in the Resistance the way Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega) are,” Tran says, “but has an important story to tell. She can and will make a difference.”After the emotional evening, Tran posted on Instagram:

Kelly Marie Tran broke down again as she  thanks director Rian Johnson.

“My parents are both refugees from Vietnam, and they spent their whole lives working towards a reality where my sisters and I would have choice,” Tran told the outlet. “That was purely it. My parents never had the luxury of having a dream.”

After the emotional evening, Tran posted on Instagram:

“Last night was one of the best nights of my life, and honestly, I truly think it’s because I let myself feel ALL the feelings,” she wrote in an Instagram post following the event. “YOU GUYS. I cried my way through the ENTIRE red carpet! I was basically a ball of emotion — from pure excitement to overwhelming joy.” 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be released in theaters across the country Dec. 15.

_________________________________________________________________________________