Kao Keanu

In this episode, we discuss Keanu’s embrace of East Asian legends
and the free will of warriors in Man of Tai Chi (2013)
and 47 Ronin (2013). Despite geographic similarities,
the two films are wildly different in their storytelling and
authenticity: whereas the former features Keanu taking a back
seat to the world of Tiger Chen in his directorial debut filmed
mostly in Chinese, the latter features Keanu artificially
inserted into Japanese history. However, he plays characters in
both films that are narratively marked as mixed, thus engaging
with his own multiracial roots, and inspiring the title of the
episode: kao, or warrior in Hawaiian.