5/5 GREAT!
  by Kie H. Kim
This documentary is very comprehensive and in-depth. The other reviewers here that question whether this documentary is sexiest must be from Mars. Any rational human being can plainly see the OBVIOUS truth that Asian-American men face ten times, no, one hundred times the amount of discrimination that Asian-American women face both in Hollywood and mainstream American society (ie everday life). This video is simply an examination of the struggles of Asian-American men in show business. And it does a fantastic job.

5/5 Be Sure to Watch the Broadcast Version
  by E. Joe
I rented The Slanted Screen from Netflix and enjoyed it, but found it somewhat roughly and incoherently cut. I decided to buy it, nevertheless. To my surprise, I found that the copy I bought had an additional "Broadcast Version" narrated by Daniel Dae Kim that featured far superior editing. The film in its re-edited version is much more smooth and straightforward in terms of the history it's trying to tell, and the additional movie clips, more complete interview snippets, and overall structuring and placement elevate the documentary far beyond the original theatrical version. I wish the producer would do more to promote the broadcast version and help the market distinguish it as the far superior re-edit.

5/5 Thought Provoking
  by Charlotte Ann Hu (Arizona, USA)
I enjoyed this film because it made me think about the images of Asian men in film, but unfortunately it doesn't address the image of Asian women in film, whom I think are as excessively sexual as their male counterparts are emasculated.

Regardless, the film adds some fascinating facts about the social acceptability of Asian men as lead males, role models as romantics. The film notes that one of the earliest Hollywood heros was an Asian-American, but this was, of course, before WWII.

Having seen this film, I'm not more aware of the fact that a character on last night's NCIS was Asian, a news announcer on national TV last night was Asian and other such awareness of positive images of Asians in U.S. media.

I noted also with interest that the failure isn't just leading roles, but also the minor roles that allow development for people to gain the skills they need to become leading actors. It made me think about the fact that most of our Hollywood heros -- Bruce Lee, Chow Yong Fat, Ken Watanabe, Jet Li got their start in Asia where the market was more amenable to their placement in entry level roles, which gave them the opportunity to develop.

I certainly hope to see more domestic development of our native talent in a broader range of ethnicities. From a Cultural Anthropological/Sociological perspective, this film is fascinating.


4/5 A great, even important doc, but...
  by jcd
A fascinating, important examination of the profound racist stereotyping that White producers, directors and writers have inflicted on (the relatively few) Asian and Asian-American film and TV characters of the past century--and, of course, on the Asian-American actors trying to make careers in those media. For me, a White American, the power of the film came from being made to face the really deep, destructive racism against Asian-Americans pervading American popular culture, now being beaten back slowly but one hopes surely by directors like Wayne Wang and Chi Moui Lo and actors like Sung Kang, Bobby Lee and Yunjin Kim.

But that last mentioned actor (Kim) is the problem I had with "The Slanted Screen": Kim isn't interviewed in the film, and neither is any other female actor, writer or director. Almost none is shown in the film and TV clips shown. (The only two women interviewed in the entire film are both White academics, giving "expert" testimony.)

"Slanted Screen" is, then, only an examination of the stereotyping and exclusion of Asian-American men. Which turns out to be important and eye-opening project, but this limitation is never expressly declared or justified in the film. Thus a documentary that does a great job at exposing racism and its costs gives the appearance of being quite sexist.

5/5 Great documentary
  by B. Chu (Sydney)
I highly recommended this amazing piece of documentary to anyone.

The film gives audiences an inside view of the difficulty Asian American actors facing in Hollywood through various interviews with actors, writers and directors.

An absolute must watch for those whose curious with the "Why there are no Asians on TV!?" question.