What It's Like to Watch 'Isle of Dogs' As a Japanese Speaker

Emily Yoshida: "If I'm playing cultural-appropriation cop (a terrible job, please don’t make me do it), I'd file it under benign. Maybe too benign! The exception is the film's use of Japanese language, which felt bizarre to me, even as a nonfluent (seriously, the opposite of fluent) Japanese speaker. ... So I reached out on Twitter to a handful of native and/or fluent speakers of Japanese who saw Isle of Dogs on opening weekend ... [and] what I found, even in this small sample size, was a similar dynamic I've seen before in debates about Asian culture as reflected by Western culture - perspectives can vary wildly between Asian-Americans and immigrated Asians, and what feels like tribute to some feels like opportunism to others."

Article source here:Arts Journal