Jet Li began to rise, after the popularity of Jackie Chan, doing many action movies as the main lead.1
Korean-American actor John Cho plays Harold Lee in this movie who is a hard-working investment banker who also enjoys cannabis smoking after work.2
This film follows Walt Kowalski, a Polish-American war veteran who befriends his Hmong-American neighbors. It shows the various differences in the socioeconomic status of Asian Americans, and works to show an awareness for the Hmong refugees.
Asian-American actor Aaron Yoo plays a student from MIT, portraying the "cool Asian nerd", and makes bad choices in Las Vegas.3
Whether or not you have seen the films mentioned in this decade, in which films is the Asian-American protagonist not an action hero?
Harold (played by John Cho) in Harold & Kumar. He has also starred in other non-action films such as The Lake House
Show AnswersIn most of the movies starring Jet Li, he always plays a role of a martial arts master. Continuing the legacy of Bruce Lee, and Jackie Chan, Jet Li was another generation of Asian-American main action actors. From Harold & Kumar and 21, John Cho and Aaron Yoo depict Asian Americans who were nerdy and hardworking, but could still be funny and cool. It can be seen by the success of John Cho and Aaron Yoo into breaking the nerdy stereotypes, that younger Asian American actors are getting more opportunities to play in bigger non-action roles.
However, stereotypes are controversial whether positive or negative, despite there being more appearances of Asian-American in American movies than the past. However, the Asian American negative stereotypes are still portrayed in movies throughout the 2000s. Asian-American males are still nerdy and absurd, and lack leadership skills. Moreover, according to a producer Julie Zhan, “even those among the Asian-American community can’t name five real mainstream [(we are assuming non-action)], say, Asian-American female actors or Asian-American male actors.”