Movies and TV shows for Asian audiences

[ADFSDF1996]

With how much influence radical Liberalism has in the mainstream media, it’s very difficult to find movies and TV shows with strong Asian lead characters. Even though Asians are the most underrepresented minority, many liberals don’t care because according to them, Asians are guilty of being “privileged”. But even with that prejudice, Asians have still beaten the odds and proven that the Asian communities don’t need anyone’s approval to be successful. Even without good representation in the media, Asian actors and actresses have still managed to get breakthrough roles in movies and TV shows.

Note: Some of these films have Eurasian actors and actresses.

1. Go for Broke (1951)

One of the first movies that had a large Asian cast. And many of the actors where veterans of the famed 442nd RCT, an all Japanese-American unit during WWII, since the movie was centered around this famous unit.

2. Way of the Dragon (1972)

A martial arts film starring Bruce Lee. His character famously faces off Chuck Norris’s character in this film. It was one of Bruce lee’s more popular films.

3. The Karate Kid franchise (1984-2008?)

A film series with a web series spinoff about a Japanese Karate master mentoring a bullied adolescent in martial arts, so adolescent can stand up to the bullies. It plays into the “wise old Asian martial arts master” trope but is still considered by many to be one of the most influential martial arts film franchises in cinema history.

4. The Crying Freeman (1995)

A martial arts action film based on a Japanese Manga. It stars Mark Dacascos as the protagonist, an assassin who sheds tears whenever he makes a kill.

5. The Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003)

A trio of sci-fi films set in a post apocalyptic/virtual reality world. The protagonist of the film is played by Eurasian Actor Keanu Reeves.

6. Mulan (1998, 2004, 2020)

A film franchise about a Chinese woman who disguises herself as a man to enlist in the Chinese Military to fight the Huns.

7. War (2007)

A action movie about a fbi Agent player by Jason Statham and an Assassin played by Jet Li. As the story progresses it becomes clear that it is much more than a simple “cops and baddies” film.

8. Maze Runner (2014-2018)

A sci fi action film trilogy about a group of young adults who must overcome several dangerous obstacles in order to overthrow the regime that has wronged them. Among the main characters is a strong non stereotypical Asian character named Minho.

9. Agents of Shield (2013-present)

An MCU tv show about a fictional super spy organization that deals with hostile unnatural forces. It stars a rather diverse cast including a tough Asian woman and a Eurasian woman.

10. Man in the High castle (2015-2019)

An alternate history Web series depicting a world where the axis powers won WWII and took over the world. It features a large Asian cast to portray several Japanese characters.

11. Into The badlands (2015-2019)

A TV show set in a post apocalyptic world. The series follows a young warrior played by Daniel Wu. It’s very rare for Asian actors to get the main role in TV shows and movies. This is a TV show where an Asian actor gets the main role.

12. Persona Non Grata (2015)

A movie about Chiune Sugihara, A Japanese ambassador Lithuania that saved several Thousand Jews by providing refuge for them in Japan.

13. Kung Fun Panda franchise (2008-2016)

An animated film franchise that takes place in China but instead of people, there are talking animals. Some of the actors and actresses doing the voice acting are Asian.

14. The Foreigner (2017)

An action movie about a vengeful father hunting those responsible for his daughter’s death. The protagonist is played by Jackie Chan and the film has very realistic fight scenes.

15. Mayhem (2017)

An action comedy movie about an Asian Office worker who gets quarantined in a building after a toxic gas gets leaked in the building causing the denizens to go berserk. The movie shows a non stereotypical strong Asian character and his Caucasian love interest fighting for survival. The fight scenes are realistic as well.

16. Iron Fist (2017)

A martial arts web series set in the MCU. It follows the story of Daniel Rand, better known as the iron fist. It is full of martial arts fight scenes and fantasy elements. While many people criticized the story, the show did a pretty good job of portraying corruption and abuse in psychiatric hospitals. Speaking of which, I kind of wish Daniel Rand would have beat up all the psychiatric hospital staff members during his escape instead of just shoving an orderly to the ground, it would have been very satisfying. Aside from the martial arts themes, the show also features a very strong Asian female character in the form of Colleen Wing who can definitely stand her ground.

17. Go For Broke (2018)

A movie about the Japanese-American 442nd RCT during WWII. It does a good job of depicting the prejudice that Japanese-Americans had to deal with during WWII.

18. Searching (2018)

A movie about a father who does his own investigation to find his missing daughter who went missing under mysterious circumstances.

19. John Wick (2014-present)

Considered to be the next generation action film, it is one of the most highly rated action film series out there. It features realistic fight scenes, realistic usage of weaponry and tactics. The protagonist is played by Eurasian actor Keanu Reeves.

20. Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

We are finally going to get a strong major Asian character in the MCU. While the Moritas and Wong are good additions to the MCU, they only have minor roles in the films. Shang Chi is a very important character who trained both Tony Stark and Captain America in martial arts in the comics. Shang Chi is considered to be the most skilled hand to hand combat specialist in Marvel, he even beat Wolverine in the comics.

Honorable mentions: “My way” “Crazy rich Asians” and “Always be my maybe”.

There a many more films and tv shows out there that cater to Asian audiences but I think these are the most noteworthy.

[shephardjhon]

Considering your comment about "liberals" I guess you would be extremely if The Foreigner was about an Asian Pakistani/Indian/Afghan/Bengali man taking revenge right?
Also Asia is HUGE extremely HUGE and VERY diverse, everything you posted is Chinese, Japanese or Korean. And again looking at your "liberal" comment I guess us dirty disguising brown Asians don't count. YANG 2020
For everyone else, If you want to watch non-Chinese, non-Korean and non-Japanese Asians here are a few:
Silicon Valley; Pakistani actor Kumail Nanjiani plays a huge role. My only complaint is he is too Americanized and drinks beer
Ramy: Probably the first time an Arab has been portrayed as a normal American without COMPLETELY ignoring his religion
iZombie: The first time I have seen an Indian guy in a role where he isn't just a nerd.
Hasan Minhaj Homecoming King. Just WOW is all I can say about that one.
Patriot Act by Hasan Minhaj: Very similar to John Oliver's Last Week Tonight but instead of throwing huge sums of money to say piss off a dictator using the world's largest cake or launch a prank war with Russell Crowe or buying 4 presidential statues to stage a fake movie trailer, they spend all their money on graphics.
The Brink: Mixed bag and none of the Pakistanis in the show are actually played by Pakistanis and the premise of Pakistan trying to nuke Israel is stupid considering Kashmir is still next door. Maybe in a alternate timeline where Z. A. Bhutto wasn't killed and actually succeeded in beating India to a nuke and making proper use of the OIC and OPEC. Still, it does portray other Pakistanis as normal humans and even shows the reality that even certain tribesmen absolutely HATE the Taliban.
Four Lions: Insanely dark, very funny and a bit too realistic comedy about 4 aspiring terrorists.

And some actual Asian movies:
Tere Bin Ladin: Alternate history where a Pakistani reporter manages to create a fake Bin Ladin to get to US News.
Lagaan: Fictional account of the introduction of of cricket in India by Colonial Britain
Balad of Mangal Panday: Movie about the failed 1857 rebellion against the British East India Company
Khuda Ke Liye: post-911 movie from a Pakistani perspective
Bol: Pakistani movie about issues related to gender. I know some of you, especially people who talk about "liberals" like OP like to bash Pakistani culture. Well here it is, well here it is, a Pakistani movie that does the same but with an ACTUAL understanding of Pakistani culture so it can do it WITHOUT being racist.
PK: Here is a similar thing critiquing Indian culture around "religious" scam artists who distort Hinduism, Islam and Christianity for their personal gain shown from the point of view of an alien trying to get back home. Again, just like Bol, you need to understand the culture to truly get this one.

[ADFSDF1996]

You do realize that South and West Asians are classified as Caucasian, right?

I’m not denying that South and West Asians face a lot of discrimination but it’s a completely different issue.

[hellionthesagereborn]

I've got no problem with this list however I would like to point out that Asians are only 5% of the nations population (and that's counting east Asians and south east Asians) and that is why they are "under represented", I think its important to remember this just because not keeping in mind the size of the demographics creates a mindset that suggests descrimination when in fact that couldn't be further from the truth (I mean Jackie Chan movies sell in the west even those that are made in china so that should be evidence that its not some kind of inherent bias but simply a lack of that demographic (just as we are not intentionally dismissing or ignoring native americans, because they only make up 1% of the population, your simply not going to have as many of them getting into acting and writing etc.)
Also War was good (and Jet Li's once upon a time in china was good (Jet li and Jackie chan in general are good (Haven't gotten around to seeing the foreigner yet but it looked good).

[ADFSDF1996]

@hellionthesagereborn Except that Asians are discriminated against. I don’t have a problem with the quantity of Asians in films. I have a problem with how Asians are portrayed.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tXIqarKPwz8
It’s even worse how the liberals pretend it’s not an issue.

[hellionthesagereborn]

I don't think its as big an issue, its their I agree but I think part of it is to do with "nerdy Asian" steretypes (which I think are a stereotype for a reason, namely that the Asian community is very education focused and that's what many people see), but we also have the bad ass Asian steretypes (again, bruce lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Donny Yen etc.). I think the reason why that comes up a lot is again, you have a much smaller pool to pull from and Asian americans have a hyper focus on education that the nerdy Asian is going to be the one most people are familiar with (Obviously this isn't representative of all Asians but it is apart of Asian American culture and thus its going to be overly represented in American interpretation of Asians (and even Asians themselves push this stereotype (Asian comedians like Ken Jeong for instance)). So while I do agree their is some of it their I do think most of its due to the population size (and yes I think their are some that are just malicious ( the "Asians have small dicks" which is inaccurate based upon scientific data and also just an asshole thing to say in general and is obviously descriminatory)). So that's why I wanted to point that out. That's why I say you can't really claim its an outright descrimination if we also have jet li bruce lee and Jackie chan as popular badasses as they are in American society (and they are (I mean Bruce Lee has been dead for decades and he still is revered in American culture for being a bad ass. I think its not really fair to dismiss that while making the claim). Basically I don't think its malice, I think their are reasons for it as I have pointed out. Some are just dumb asses who descriminate, obviously your going to get that because you get that for every group but I think the majority is because of the Asian American culture combined with them being a much smaller population.

[ADFSDF1996]

Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee are only exceptions, and Jackie Chan mostly did comedies in his prime. The foreigner is one of his few movies that actually has a more serious tone, which is one of the reasons why I included in this list. It’s a non typecast film.

The lack of representation is hierarchical in nature, Liberals frequently whine about cultural appropriation yet stay quiet when Asians are mistreated in society. Example all the liberals went on social media to voice their anger when the two black men where arrested in Starbucks, yet were quiet when when the nearly 70 year old Asian doctor was dragged off the plain. Liberals care more about African Americans than they do about Asian-Americans.

The reason for the liberal apathy towards Asians is because the liberals accuse Asians of being “privileged” and “too successful”.

[hellionthesagereborn]

Have you ever heard of any one saying Jackie Chan WASN'T a bad ass? I've never heard of that, in fact quite the opposite (and the first police story? Yeah it had humor but it wasn't at his expense and it didn't take away from him being a bad ass (especially since he was known for his stunts and how dangerous and insane they where (I'm still a little surprised he hadn't died from some of them). I still thank that most of this is not intentional and primarily due to population size and American Asian culture, not entirely sure, but mostly. That said I will agree that the left are hypocritical assholes when it comes to this (and most things honestly) and completely ignore this (probably because quite frankly, Asians are not a big enough voting block for them to pretend to care (because I'm pretty sure that is the only thing that motivates them, getting power.). I would also point out that if we are going to talk about descrimination, the media isn't the one that I think is a big deal, the complete descrimination against Asians in colleges however is (and those colleges are operated and controlled almost exclusively by liberals). They give Asians (and whites) an extreme demerit when it comes to acceptance into universities because they are "over represented" I. e. they worked their asses off. That's the descrimination I would care about because that one their is no way around it, its blatant descrimination.

[hellionthesagereborn]

Oh also Jackie Chans more recent police story has a more serious tone (its actually pretty dark honestly). Their is another one out their I don't remember to much about (I've only seen one scene from it where he is cornered in an alley and thugs are bashing glass bottles at him. I actually would like to find out what movie that was). But again, he had humor, didn't mean he wasn't a hardcore bad ass.

[ADFSDF1996]

Most of Jackie Chan’s films were made in China for Chinese audiences, they aren’t meant to cater to international audiences. Most of the one I’ve included here are meant for international audiences.

[nerms123]

There aren’t American but I liked them

https://youtu.be/GcZ2zq82ebA?list=PLQgby8Rb0ImEP4108x04Feg2dBvuDADJGhttps://youtu.be/9odoeoSyDlU?list=PL4iUGGeFtkXPckQLFA_sMFjQVfOdsVnsFhttps://youtu.be/PgvoaZSJc0s

[midnightmoon05]

I love love the 83 Andy Lou version!!! can't find it anywhere!

[allele1127]

I would say that Native Americans probably have it the worst when it comes to media representation, but yes, there is a severe void in the media where more Asian representation should be, and it needs to be addressed more, because it's important.

Other things to consider:
- I've gone to school in Pennsylvania, New York, and California, across four different school districts, and in each state I've involved myself with the performing arts. In each club, class, and production, there was never more than one Asian person. Never. This makes sense in Pennsylvania, an overwhelmingly white state, but there are plenty of POC in New York, and specifically a lot more Asians in California. I fully believe that if casting directors were looking for Asian actors, they could find them. If writers wanted to make roles for Asian actors, then they would. But I think it's worth considering that you hardly see Asians pursuing careers in the arts compared to white people as well as other POC. There was a brief discussion on this in one of my classes, and I found it interesting when a Thai friend of mine said that culturally, or rather, as a result of cultural pressure, Asians are more encouraged by their families to pursue money-making careers like those in science, law, and math. Part of it has to do with the fact that many Asian Americans are descendant from immigrants in recent memory, and so there's a greater pressure on Asian children to achieve the most "successful" career possible to make the struggles their parents had to go through to immigrate to America worthwhile.
- Asian (Americans) don't seem to be as outspoken on social media as other minorities and disadvantaged groups. When there's injustice or a change that people want to see in the media, it's guaranteed that the black community or LGBT community will be extremely vocal about it. Within them, they aim to advocate for their own representational goals, and they seem to do so very loudly. The same doesn't appear to be true of Asians. It's very possible that this has to do with the fact that Asians are one of the less populated minorities in America, and America (Hollywood) is a global media powerhouse. With fewer possible voices, it will naturally be less loud. The

I'm not sure why you're faulting "liberals" for this since liberals are much more vocal about a desire for more diverse representation than "conservatives." The desire for representation is one of the greatest outcries of the modern liberal millennial, after all, so I have to disagree with you there.

At the end of the day, there are more white people in charge of production studios and TV networks, and white people will naturally write for and hire their own race for their scripts. To a white person, the default human being, as well as the type of human being whose experience they can write most effectively, is a white person. In order to achieve greater diversity, (white) writers have to make the conscious decision to make their character a POC, as well as do greater research to understand the experiences this character will have as a POC, one that they can't relate to.

But this is all a lot more work, so the most positive change would be more diverse writers and heads of production studios. A common argument against greater representation is "if you guys want this, do it yourselves." And that's kind of fair. It's unequal, because again, white people dominate every writer's room, white people are make up the great majority of network heads and TV showrunners. To achieve the desired representation, POC have to get those jobs and advocate for themselves. But of course, most of the people in charge are white people, so...

[ADFSDF1996]

Liberals are the ones who’ve been pushing Asians away. Just look at Harvard, a notoriously liberal university was recently sued by several Asian students for discriminating against them when it came to college admissions. The Japanese-American internment was given the green light by a liberal administration under FDR. Liberal dominated companies refuse to hire Asians.

Asians live in what are called enclaves, which are basically communities within communities, they keep to themselves because they don’t feel welcomed.

In regards to Hollywood, they are liberal and almost all of the roles Asians get are cannon fodder roles and stereotypical dehumanizing roles.

[RolandCuthbert]

What about Chocolate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ0Bt9PxosE

[Kiran_Yagami]

Dude, I don't give a fuck about whether or not the lead actor is Asian. It doesn't alter the experience for me at all. As long as the action is well shot, edited, and choreographed and the story is well written enough to get me emotionally invested in it, I just don't care. I don't need the main character to look like me. Hell, I don't need any characters to look like me. What I need them to be is relatable to me, and relatability isn't skin deep. It's mental and emotional, both of which are color blind.

[DizzyDesii]

Im mad i still haven't seen War. The Foreigner was ok. I tried Cryin Freeman with my ex 😂 i just remember ole boy cryin after makin love

[October808]

Sands of Iwo Jima
Otoko Tachi no Yamato
Nihon Chinbotsu (both versions)
Terror the Infamy series
Zipang! anime series
Shingeki no Kyojin anime
Kidou Senshi GUNDAM 0079 08th MS Team anime OVA
Kidou Senshi GUNDAM 0080 War IN the Pocket OVA
Serei no Moribito anime seriies
Grave of the Fireflies live action
Grave of the Fireflies animated film
FREEDOM anime
Planetes anime
Foreigner
Tampopo
Legend of Suryotai
Red Cliff I
Red Cliff II
Shaolin Soccer

[DWornock]

Modern movies in the USA are worthless anyway. They are so full of politically correctness crap that they are not even close to being realistic anymore. For Asians and even white Americans Korean drama is ten times better.

[oddwaffle]

Why not just watch actual Asian shows?

Three Kingdoms?
Journey to the West
Condor shooting Heroes
Return of the Condor Heroes
Deer Cauldron

Tons of c-drama, j-drama, k-drama

You don't need those Hollywood movies.

[BrittBratt2416]

Wait a minute, nobody told me my Asian tv boyfriend made a movie called Mayhem back in 2017? Now im gonna have to watch it... my fiance is about to pressed. lol

[White-American89]

Your list is kinda crappy. Sorry. Jet li has made and been in a ton of US movies. There's also Tony Jaa movies. Also Asians are accurately represented demographically in western cinema.

[ADFSDF1996]

Doesn’t explain this

[White-American89]

Actually yeah it does.

[yeahguy2]

Its not a crappy list, most movies that have Asian lead actors go straight to DVD. Some other factors contribute to it as well.

[White-American89]

@yeahguy2 I think you should read do this my take.

[ADFSDF1996]

@White-American89 Not really. Hispanics have the largest population the minorities yet they don’t get the same level of representation that African Americans get.

[White-American89]

What? Hispanics have their own spainish language stations. Also most Hispanics are white.
https://youtu.be/aosT6Kecj24

[ADFSDF1996]

Most hispanics are actually mestizos (half White, half indigenous American) And stations don’t count, Asians have some stations as well. I’m mostly talking about Movies, TV shows and how Asians are portrayed.

[White-American89]

Stations count cause they got their own shows. Most Hispanics are Spaniards and the colonial descendants of Spaniards.

[ADFSDF1996]

That’s only part of their ancestry, making them mixed.

www.pewresearch.org/.../

www.pewresearch.org/.../

[White-American89]

I'm afraid those surveys are US studies in which US Hispanics self identify as a race because on us census forms hispanic is listed as a race and Hispanics have been considered non-white going back to the spainis-mexicam wars and spainish American wars. Those surveys don't take into account Spain, central America and South America.

[ADFSDF1996]

If we are talking about Spaniards then yes they are white but since we are talking about Hispanics from Latin America then they are mostly meztizo and or mulatto unless their ancestors didn’t mix with the locals, then you can call them white.

[White-American89]

Nope they are mostly the descendants of Spainish colonizers as most of the natives died out fairly quickly.

[ADFSDF1996]

Then how do you explain the darker complexions of many Hispanics?

The Aztec empire and Mayan Civilization are dead but their descendants like the mayas and the Nahuatl are still around.

[White-American89]

The spainish are dark. Hispanics in central and South America match Hispanics in Spain generally.

[ADFSDF1996]

There are many fair skinned Spaniards. And around 62% of the people in Mexico are mestizo. www.worldatlas.com/.../...ic-groups-in-mexico.html

[White-American89]

Mestizo is an invented ethnicity designed to help unify Mexico that is comprised of mostly the descendants of the Spainish and have 70-80% European DNA. You can be white and identify as mestizo.
https://youtu.be/BiNNUeMNcVw
https://youtu.be/sZNAqwrm9hY

[ADFSDF1996]

Latin America is way more diverse than that. study.com/.../ethnic-groups-in-latin-america.html

And those videos don’t really show much, they just show specific individuals taking DNA tests.

[White-American89]

Of course but everywhere is diverse now. Point is metizo is something people identify as not something they are.

[ADFSDF1996]

Fresh of the boat Europeans or any pure Europeans in Latin America can’t identify as mestizo for obvious reasons but Hispanics who can prove to be of both Spanish and native/indigenous American descendant can definitely cal themselves Mestizo.

And on a side note, Native/indigenous Americans are considered to be closely related to East Asians.

[White-American89]

Metizo is not based on DNA.

[ADFSDF1996]

Yes it is, a person has to have both Indigenous American and European (Spanish) genes.

[dev765]

Into The Badlands is one of the best shows for Asian audiences. It also had some of the best fight scenes that I had ever seen.

[saeyamazaki]

Or we can just watch Korean Dramas, Japanese dramas or literally anything else

[sejla]

Pretty much. Good writing, good character development, good acting. American tv and movies companies are playing catch up and are redoing korean dramas and movies already.

[saeyamazaki]

Right, but the remakes aren’t even that good

[sejla]

I'm afraid to see what they do to the Korean Movie Extreme Jobs. It's suppose to be a joint effort with CJEntertainment and an American actor but I think too much of the humor can't be translated to American humor.

[saeyamazaki]

I haven't heard about that but I’m not sure

[Femdomina]

Cool list, I'm not Asian but I love some of these movies and tv shows.

[Xlink]

You forgot rush hour
Ans romeo must die bro.
Also Asia has there own market.
And a lot of Asian in Hollywood are behind the camera.

[HereIbe]

Liberalism is essentially anti-Asian, since Asians don't fit the liberal stereotype for what "minority" is supposed to be.

[ADFSDF1996]

Yes, that’s one of the main reasons why I don’t like liberalism.

[incelposting]

The nutshack is a pioneering Philippine animation series.

[iFarted]

Wheres the Rush Hour trilogy? Fearless?

As for tv shows I guess there's just Fresh off the boat

[mishmishayezie]

Wheres CRAZY RICH ASIANS? 😂😮😮😮

[sejla]

And Late Night, Blinded by the Light and A Dog's Journey.

[Blitzkrieg_88]

Needs more ethnic diversity.

[CocoBat]

Or they can just watch anything.-.

[adolescentswede]

You could try watch stuff from Asian studios