Mystic, bumbler or would-be martial arts master – these stereotypes of Asian males inspired the National Film Board production Who is Albert Woo?

Director and writer Hunt Hoe calls the film ‘a kind of personal journey in search of the ultimate Asian male role model.’

Inspired by the walk-on role as the eponymous Mr. Woo, a ‘very cliched, very stereotypical Asian male,’ that Hoe played in his film Foreign Ghosts, Who is Albert Woo? explores some of the more enduring stereotypes of the Asian male. In the process, the filmmaker says he ‘discovered there was more to that than just a shallow stereotype. It turned into finding out who we are, how we like to be seen, if there’s a real role model.’

Asia – construed in this case to include India, Malaya and some Moslem countries – seems to attract no end of stereotypes, from the Indian mystic, guru ‘or terrorist’ to the blundering Peter Sellers character in The Party. Chief among these stereotypes is the martial-arts master cliche – capitalized on in the film with the inclusion of Jackie Chan as an interview subject.

‘The only [famous martial arts master] left is Jackie. We approached him, it took a while, we weren’t sure if it would come through. We wanted to see what he would say about being typecast and finally he said yes and we shot him for three days. We did lengthy interviews on what he thinks is the problem. We weren’t looking for anything in particular, we were just looking for a general viewpoint.’

Famous people are in the minority in Hoe’s film, however. ‘Our intention was to talk to the everyday Asian-Canadian to see how they feel and who they look up to, who their role models are, how they feel they are being seen in the West.’

These everyday Canadians include some interesting specimens: a Malay Chinese Broadway actor, a Japanese-Canadian standup comedian, a Pakistani Moslem gay activist and ‘a guy born in Quebec who decided to go home to India for the first time to get married.’

‘We wound up zeroing in on unusual people, people you don’t usually associate with Asian men. We wound up going after a lot of other people that you might not usually think of.’

The film makes its premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival and has been invited to the Hawaii International Film Festival in November. *