Posters for YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN and MAMMA MIA! outside a first-run movie theater in Taiwan
Taiwan's hand-painted movie posters portray American actors with Asian eyes
Mamma Mia! The movie that is.
When movie theaters in Taiwan hang
handpainted advertising posters outside the theaters to attract
moviegoers, American and European actors and actresses are invariably
painted with Asian eyes. In a recent poster for Mamma Mia!, it was
hard to recognize the four actors in the original poster: Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth,
When asked for an explanation of this apparent sleight of hand, er,
eye, Jessica Chen, 27, a staff member at a local movie theater in
southern Taiwan, said that she also noticed how the Western actors routinely got
Oriental eyes when the local poster painter did his magic. She added that she thought most Taiwanese were not aware of this slight changing of the eyes in such large-size, outdoor movie posters.
"I don't even think the painter is even aware of what he is doing," Chen
said. "I think he is using the Hollywood poster as the basis for his
handpainted banner, painted on canvass, but that he unconciously forms
the eyes of the characters in the only style he knows, which is the
Asian style for Taiwanese, Chinese or Japanese actors. I am sure he is
not aware that he has painted Meryl Streep with Asian eyes. It's
simply a cultural and visual thing, I am sure, and he means no harm to
anyone at all."
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