[post_page_title]Justin Chatwin – Goku (Dragonball: Evolution)[/post_page_title]
Dragonball: Evolution, the 2009 live-action adaptation of the beloved Japanese manga and anime Dragon Ball Z, would probably have been terrible regardless of casting. To be fair, some of the characters WERE played by Asian actors – most of them just weren’t Japanese.
Nevertheless, Hollywood once again felt the audience wouldn’t relate unless the protagonist, love interest, and villain were all white – so Canadian Justin Chatwin and Americans Emmy Rossum and James Marsters were cast in these respective roles. Martial arts still figured heavily into the plot, which concerned collecting mystical artifacts inspired by East Asian culture – so a white Goku was all the more jarring.
