So i just watched a GORGEOUS trailer for a movie called The Cup Of Tears, which has yet to get any kind of distribution. It's a samurai movie IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE, which just looks visually awesome. I have one small problem with it though. After showing leagues upon leagues of Asian (ostensibly Japanese) characters fighting, or women dancing, or getting slaughtered, the big reveal on the "heroic samurai that will save us all (tm)" shows that he is...

A WHITE GUY.

WTF???

Now, i'm a very big fan of The Last Samurai, especially because the story reveals that the title is NOT referring to Tom Cruise's character Nathan Algren. Also because he's not someone who comes along and "saves the savages" as has been done in so many other movies. So that one gets a pass, but why is it that in so many movies, when a world is established where there would be virtually NO white people, a white person ends up being the hero, like in Pathfinder with Karl Urban (which, thankfully, bombed)? Or worse, a white person ends up getting dressed up and we're supposed to believe that he/she is middle eastern a la Jake Gyllenhall (and in fact most of the cast) in Prince of Persia? Or Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans? And don't get me started on The Last Airbender. That's a whole bunch of issues right there.

There are so many actors of color who could be cast in leading roles, and appropriately so in these movies. Why is it that casting directors/producers/executives put white people in? I've heard the argument that "white person = blank slate on which to paint color" which is an incredibly racist thing to say, but seems to be the winning argument ("all i need to do is get a tan" is a quote i've seen more than once). Is it that those in charge REALLY think that white people are a) their biggest audience and b) that they only want to see other white people in movies? Do they really think that they'll alienate an audience that much by having a POC in the lead role?

As usual, these are not rhetorical questions.

Here's the trailer, btw: Cup Of Tears