MovieChat Forums > Sora no daikaijû Radon (1957) Discussion > Catch the picaninny stereotype?

Catch the picaninny stereotype?

posted 12 years ago by Kingsbridger
2 replies | jump to latest

Look for a bad racial stereotype after one of the Rodan's does a splash down by the bridge and the second one lands elsewhere and get's fired upon by those toy tanks. A picaninny is mostly used as a stereotype of a child but this one was more of an adult type - whose moniker I don't know. The caricature was on a street level advertising sign. You get a flash of a close up of it at the 58 minute mark. It shows figure in a tall white hat and ink black jacket sipping a white drink through a straw. I cannot translate the Japanese copy on it. Can anyone else? It quickly gets run over by an advancing tank. It hurts to see this but I guess it shows the times of post war Japan then (oh, we had it too).

[–] Big G-2 11 years ago

Yes, I noticed it (and have for years). Unfortunately, during that period there were a lot of sterotypes everywhere. Heck, look at BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S with Mickey Rooney's Japanese character. Blake Edwards would later regard doing that.

[–] gribfritz2 7 years ago

Since it's certainly no child, I'm doubtful it's a picaninny. We have black skin and red lips, but it also seems to be wearing some kind of large hat and it appears to have blonde tufts of hair. I've never seen an adult picaninny with blonde hair and a hat!