Why has speaking Chinese become a Hollywood fashion?

The first time I watched the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951), the special effect was completely out of date even at that time, and the story was simple in some degree even naive. But after so many years I still remember the story line and the beautiful performance.

That is why I was so excited about the remake of this movie.

In the original movie Klaatu was played by Michael Rennie, and Helen Benson by Patricia Neal. In the 2008 version of update, it was Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly.

In my mind, Keanu Reeves is the right choice for Klaatu. A clean but remote character that does not easily show emotions. Acting would be rather challenging. Although I enjoyed Rennie’s portray of Klaatu, I do not like the part of the movie when his character started to lecture to others.

Reeves’s Klaatu is more self-reserved and distant. Even at emotional screens his character rarely displays his feelings. Yet the audience can still connect to what is inside the character. To that I like his performance better.

Jennifer Connelly’s update of Benson is acceptable. I do not like the original version of Benson anyway. Connelly is more serious in this movie, and therefore is fine to play an academic type.

Given what a joke that Hollywood had Denise Richards to play Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist in 007 movie “The World Is Not Enough“, I lost faith in Hollywood’s ability to portray an academic researcher. If you do not have a high expectation, you would be pleasantly surprised. I have to say that Connelly’s version is more credible.

What else do I like about the movie? The special effects are definitely a plus. The first encounter of Klaatu, including how he escaped from the military base. Benson’s stepson (who is totally annoying to begin with, but then develops into a more complicated character later).

Speaking of a surprise, what I find amusing is the part of the movie where Klaatu met his contact in a McDonald’s. The majority of the conversation was in Chinese.

Oh my goodness.

I do want to give my compliment to Mr. Reeves: Not that bad. Of course he has a heavy accent and his Chinese is definitely not fluent, but I can understand him perfectly.

Mr. Wu, Klaatu’s contact, played by James Hong, was no better. Both characters speak Mandarin Chinese; while Reeves struggles with his American accent, Hong struggles with his somewhat Cantonese accent (a Chinese dialect).

Yes the two actors did fight hard with their accents, but at least I can understand their Chinese. A month ago I watched Tropic Thunder. Kirk Lazarus, the character played by Robert Downey Jr., also tried to speak Chinese in some parts of the movie. Oh boy, that was a disaster.

I love Robert Downey Jr., but I cannot get what he was trying to say. As his character went on and on in “Chinese”, I can only catch some words here and there. If there were no English substitles, I would have been completely lost.

Which means I should give more credit to Reeves for his effort of trying.

Then I wonder why speaking Chinese all of sudden becomes a Hollywood fashion?

Stinky Monkey bragged that his Chinese is more fluent than Reeves. To a great extent I agree. Then he reminded me: “but you do have to know that Reeves is 1/4 Chinese…” From there definitely the evidence emerges that he watched too many episodes of House.