Far Eastern? Will that do? Asian's clearly a useless term for its span and the range of very differing people (Russians, arabs, Indians and Chinese all count).
I'm not the one who came up with this. This is simply the current state of the language. In North America, "Orient" and "Oriental" are held to be an outdated and somewhat offensive term (not a slur, per se; it's more akin to "Negro"). Some US states have outright banned its use in documents, not that it is used much or at all anyway. This has largely been because of the preferences of Asians themselves. That's really all that needs to be said on the matter.
^I would tend to agree that the word 'Oriental' tends to be a bit offensive when used in respect to a person or people ('Those inscrutable Orientals!' or the like) but I wouldn't have thought it so when used in relation to places. Someone suggested the Oriental Express - anecdotally, I've just had a look in my phone book and found 4 Chinese Restaurants with Orient or Oriental in their name in my local area.
What a dreadful name for a film as well. It sounds James Bond-ish, but it's a real back-of-the-drawer-in-case-we-can't-think-of-another-one title. You'd just about accept it for a video game, but ripping off pissing Chicken Licken for Bond film title? I feel embarrassed having to say it out loud.
I guess we'll have to disagree there. I thought it was a fine title, in context with the film itself and in the context of the Fleming-ish sound and feel of Bondian titles. I mean, did you even see the film?
Well I for one have never known any people from that region getting upset by it being referred to as the Orient, nor referring to say, a city like Shanghai as Oriental. I even decided to ask one of my co-workers who hails from Hong Kong if it was deemed inappropriate and she said, no it wasn't. So anyway, can you post a link or two actually referring to what your asserting please. But it does sound a bit like what Bob described last night. I'm guessing he did given the whole discussion over the right or wrong use of Oriental when referring to that region of the globe came out of Bones review of the film.
I've been mostly glossing over that conversation as it's not really relevant here, just a bunch of people arguing over semantics and not really what I'm reading this thread for. Still, he could also just as easily have gleaned the reference from what people have been saying in here, so I wanted to ask point blank.
Well the discussion for what it's worth occurred after he commented on the film and his use of Oriental City in describing Shanghai. But that's cool, it has been a bit off piste and I can understand why you'd gloss over it, we've all done that from time to time. but going by his comments on the film a few days ago, I do reckon it's a safe bet he watched Skyfall.
I liked Skyfall in general and it was very solid as a Bond movie, but it was not all that much better than MI: Ghost Protocol earlier this year. I still think Casino Royale is the best Daniel Craig instalment and best Bond movie in the past quarter of a century. Skyfall nearly vanished up its own backside with its Bond references and borrowed heavily from Chris Nolan movies (like Inception and The Dark Knight, with Silva being a toned down Ledger Joker with better funding). And people are ripping into Quantum of Solace now, even though it was a relatively decent Bond movie? Quantum of Solace was underwritten and overdirected (a troubled middle simbling in the Craig series so-far), but its villains (though less directly threatening and more blander than Bardem's antagonist) were in some ways more unpleasant, monopolising the vital water supplies in a poor country, being led by billionaire leaders holding secret meetings in plain sight, and having "people everywhere". QoS had problems, but the TPTB will be throwing the baby out with the bathwater by dumping the Quantum syndicate and Mr. White altogether. And the CGI giant lizards in that casino pit were as cheesy as that rubber snake in Drax's pool from Moonraker.
Nothing is as cheesy as that rubber snake. It's only down to how monumentally awesome an actor Rog is that you don't realise it isn't real
I haven't read through the thread, so maybe some people felt the same way... I was disappointed. Goldeneye (a spy betrayed) and The World Is Not Enough (Let's get M) and a pinch of Burn Notice (When you're a spy and you're in a house surrounded by a larger force...). And then... if Silva wanted to kill M, why didn't he just go to her house and blow it up? Or go inside and stab her? Or if humiliation was required, just continue to reveal names and once she was denounced publicly go to her house and kill her. It would've been MUCH easier, and smarter to go that route than this utterly elaborate plan (yes, I know, he's crazy, blah blah blah) to get captured and some how know WHEN they would go through his computer and having the FORESIGHT to know where she would HAPPEN to be testifying. Ugh. The weird thing is: the cast is GREAT, AMAZING. The movie LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. But the "story" is stupid. And only makes sense if Silva is stupid or SOOOO CRAZY he can't think logically... yet we see that he does... so.... Just... disappointing.