Is there something more to it? Because it seems like a disgusting premise. This is so bad, even for the usual libcringe of broadway.

  • Bluegrass_Buddhist [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It's a French adaptation of Madame Butterfly, an Italian opera about the US' presence in Meiji-era Japan. Both can be seen as criticisms of US imperialism, but a lot of people don't like that in both versions the main lady character gets killed after being undyingly-loyal to the (white) American soldier that abandoned her.

  • Puggo [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I saw it years ago and I remember it being pretty bad. The whole premise is that this American soldier falls in love with a Vietnamese sex worker, they sleep together and conceive a child and now the Vietnamese woman yearns to escape the evil communist country and be reunited with the man she had a fling with, but is hopelessly in love with. The whole time, this Vietnamese guy, who was initially a soldier in the NVA, then became a commissar in the post-war government is an asshole to her because he's a communist and doesn't like that she had feelings for some American guy. Anyway, the couple gets reunited in Thailand or some shit, but the American has married some other woman in the states which means that this Vietnamese woman has no other purpose in life and commits suicide because this is some Grade-A white savior complex shit or something like that

  • Antoine_St_Hexubeary [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The creators are from :france-cool:. The songs are proficiently written and all that, and the subject matter is treated with a level of 'respect' that probably seemed appropriate in the late 80s, but...I doubt we'll be seeing a revival of it anytime soon.

    • American_Communist22 [she/her,comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      its super popular over here, and its told to be one of the best musicals ever made

      like jesus christ americans think this is like a progressive thing for their attitude against vietnamese

      and of course its written by white dudes, no one else has the depravity

      • Antoine_St_Hexubeary [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Nod. Even if you somehow ignored the racial and political angles, you're still left with a musical about a 'romantic' relationship between a destitute teenage orphan and a man in his twenties who may have helped kill her parents.

        Also i take back my 'appropriate for the late 80s' comment, because people were apparently protesting it as far back as its original run.

        • American_Communist22 [she/her,comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          and you want to know the worst part?

          I live in Hawaii

          This thing is popular in Hawaii

          Do I need to explain which area of the population likes it most? Or how much it relates?

            • American_Communist22 [she/her,comrade/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Military personnel dominates the Island, but it is massively popular to asian americans, and even hawaiian americans. America has colonized the place thoroughly. Hawaiians themselves hate it, because Native Hawaiians are the only smart and sane ones on the whole archipelago.

              tl:dr the colonizers love this shit

  • naom3 [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    According to wikipedia, the original production literally had white actors in yellowface and wearing eye prosthetics. In the nineties. :what-the-hell:

  • Cromalin [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    bad adaptation of an opera from the late 1800s, and is exactly as racially sensitive as you would expect said opera to be with no attempts to update it