It is not hard to pinpoint the mindset that inspired the creation of Flash Gordon’s extraterrestrial nemesis, Ming the Merciless, back in 1934. When the scariest thing you can imagine invading the Earth is an ornately dressed gentleman of apparent east Asian extraction, it’s clear you’re not really frightened of aliens at all. Ming, along with Fu Manchu and the later Mandarin comic book supervillain, are classic examples of “yellow peril” xenophobia, then at its height in the US and large parts of western Europe.
The problem for Taika Waititi, who has reportedly been hired to direct a new Flash Gordon movie for the newly assembled Fox/Disney studio, is that Ming is also the most interesting thing about the property. Removing him would be like deleting Darth Vader from Star Wars, or Voldemort from Harry Potter. Ridding the villain of his unwieldy east Asian inspiration, as the awful 2007 TV adaptation attempted, makes his inclusion pointless. Of course Max von Sydow’s towering performance in the campy 1980 film really doesn’t help here, even if those costumes and makeup on a Swedish actor now seems pretty repugnant.
Though Gordon did not always battle against the ruler of Mongo in his early comic-book adventures, his other enemies were often similarly styled descendants, such as Ming’s son Kang the Cruel. It is hard to see any interest in a Flash Gordon movie that did not feature Ming or one of his many ciphers.
In Iron Man 3 (2013), Marvel deftly avoided any accusations of racism by reimagining the comics’ “oriental” villain Mandarin as a shadowy figure who may or may not represent the west’s post-9/11 anxieties and prejudices. Marvel supremo Kevin Feige recently said Mandarin remains in the studio’s plans (a twist previously suggested by the short film All Hail to the King), but you have to wonder if the studio would be better off leaving well alone.
Fox/Disney’s great plan to reimagine Flash Gordon seems to boil down to this: animation! As the makers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse know well, animation can be a great problem solver. With it, Sony was able to make the first decent Spider-Man film in more than a decade. Thanks to the wonders of animation (and a complicated plot about alternate universes) the studio didn’t have to worry about choosing between Peter Parker or Miles Morales – it just included both.
As an approach, it makes sense, even if it’s essentially a cop out. Live-action fantasy movies can easily become a source of ridicule, as Andrew Stanton’s criminally underrated John Carter discovered to its cost (around $200m of it) in 2012. Animation, with its ability to create convincing imaginary worlds, is a far safer option, and who could argue with a shift that would allow stalwarts of the 1980 film (such as Brian Blessed) to reprise their roles?
On the other hand, a live-action approach would allow the hiring of an ethnically appropriate actor. Someone such as Randall Park could be perfect, especially given Waititi’s fondness for the creatively absurd – this is the film-maker who triumphantly recast Marvel’s stony-faced monster Korg as as a squeaky-voiced Kiwi in Thor: Ragnarok.
Moreover, animation does not solve Flash Gordon’s essential issues. At its heart this is still the story of a white guy who has to defend his girlfriend from a violent member of an ethnic minority. With its focus on Gordon inspiring the natives of Mongo to rise up against their evil oppressor, the comic book and its adaptations might have been retitled White Saviour in Space.
Sorry Fox/Disney. Ming the Merciless will always be a horrible stereotype of east Asian villainy – whether he appears as a live action character or is created on a laptop.
