Yip Fred English R1B: Section 3 Marguerite Nguyen April 5, 2007 Blade Runner's Orientalism In Edward W. Said's article, he describes and critiques the idea of Orientalism. Said describes the term as a collection of false arguments that underlie Western attitudes towards the East and its culture. Such arguments as written by Said include the long belief of preset exotic and romanticized images of Asian countries through the eyes of Western culture, referring to the aged traditions and ideologies of the people. The use of specific Western figures and their viewpoints like Arthur James Balfour, Napoleon, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Henry Kissinger, and Dante all serve to portray the East as being inferior to the West and classifying the people in a group of unknowns that is separate from other individuals. The widely known Ridley Scott film, "Blade Runner," has portrayals of Asians working lower class jobs in a ramshackle Chinatown, speaking their lines in broken English as compared to the articulate and well-spoken characters of Deckard, Rachel, and the other Replicants, reinforcing Said's argument . Said believes the world functions with "two unequal halves, Orient and Occident," (2-3) both being the result of interaction between different cultures. For Said, the Orient could not possibly exist without the people of the Occident and it can
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be said vice versa as well. The knowledge that one culture has of another , in various areas like social views, aesthetics, and economics, causes one culture to make preconceived stereotypes of the other. These stereotypes are visually shown through "Blade Runner" through its characters. The first encounter with the main protagonist , Deckard, is at a Japanese street side restaurant . As Deckard is ordering his food, there is some confusion between the Asian cook and the retired Blade Runner . Because of the language barrier, Deckard has to resort to simple one-word sentences and using his fingers to count the number of items he wants with his dish to the puzzled cook . Within this short opening scene, it is already assumed that the workers of the filthy and polluted downtown area of Los Angeles cannot even understand basic numbers in English, depicting Deckard to be more intelligent and resourceful in the use of his hands to communicate. The filth of the street side is presented with flowing gray steam coming from the sewer vents and the fact that the scene is at night creates a disconsolate mood for the citizens walking the streets and workers in the stores and restaurants, whom mostly are Asian people. Some of the early scenes in the movie display an aesthetic environment heavily influenced by Asian culture, particularly the unique Japanese culture with corresponding Japanese music and sounds playing in the enormous monitored billboards. The sky view camera shots of the colorful buildings with consumer ads and bright, flashing neon lights similarly mimics that of a large city, such as Hong Kong or Tokyo for instance. Much like how the bulky skyscrapers of China and
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Japan are decorated with recognizable symbols and advertisements of the West , 2019 Los Angeles is bordered with its identifiable towers with huge television monitors surrounded by nearly blinding illuminations. In addition, the streets below the cityscapes seem to filled be with an ocean of civilians and traffic, providing a fastpaced and seemingly disorganized mess within the Chinatown of Los Angeles, which people may automatically presume is present in any Chinatown of any major city. As brought up before, the Asian workers in the film reinforce Said's argument of Westerners inserting certain characteristics in those individuals, with a common one pertaining to education and skill level. The actual evidence for this that is shown in "Blade Runner" comes in the form of several Asian workers working low-income jobs that only require knowing a single ability. The eye specialist, Hannibal Chew, who is confronted by both Replicants, Batty and Leon, appears to perform his practice in what looks to be a cluttered laboratory within a freezer, and the other example is the snake maker that Deckard is able to find within her tiny corner store . Both Asian characters speak in extremely broken English, indicating their lack of verbal communication outside of their native tongue, which supports the Western views of Asians that Said argues. Along with the differences between Eastern and Western culture and customs that Said brings up in "Orientalism," another point to be made about the world in "Blade Runner" is the fear by many of a technological takeover and advancement by the Japanese (sparking after the rapidity of Japanese capitalist development after
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World War II.) The reason why this argument is significant and relates to Said's point is because of the strong mixed presence of Asian and American influence throughout the film. Ridley Scott's vision of the future shows America back in control of large businesses and corporations, even though is there a very large Asian population in Los Angeles. The film's aesthetic that is created is twofold. On the one hand is the advertising and excessive use of lights and colors of the street-level vendors; on the other, the understated and complexity of the actual Asian people, an example would be the intricacy and significance of the character Gaff's paper origami figures. Gaff's origami figures are presented in a unique manner much different than if Deckard or Rachel were to mimic the act . In the scene where Deckard is in the progress of being briefed about his mission, Gaff sits calmly and quietly in his chair, making an origami crane and setting it inside of the ashtray next to him. The camera zooms in extremely close, however, only for a quick moment , to emphasize the craftsmanship. Gaff's way of amusing himself by simply folding paper demonstrates one of Said's long beliefs of romanticized images of Asians in that they lead a plain yet modest lifestyle that is free of complications and obstacles. From the film, the idea is clearly true because Gaff does not engage in the pursuit of the Replicants as Deckard does nor does he even participate in a fight , however, that is what the director envisioned. Scott's representation of the Asian characters in his film supports the argument of Said, who is acknowledging a common trend among Westerners that
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correlate and connect old-style and old-world ideologies and characteristics to people of the East.
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Works Cited Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott . Perf. Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. Warner Brothers, 1982.
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