I was thinking about it again today it seems to be doing some work to subvert stereotypes of Japanese owned corporations
John McLane: "You throw quite a party. I didn't realise they celebrated Christmas in Japan"
Later
Hans Gruber: "Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi. Born: Kyoto, 1937.
Family emigrated to San Pedro, California, 1939.
Interned at Manzanar: 1942 to 1943.
Scholarship student: University of California, 1955.
Law degree: Stanford, 1962.
MBA: Harvard, 1970.
President: Nakatomi Trading.
Vice Chairman: Nakatomi Investment Group.
And father of five.."
Contrary to contemporary stereotypes, Takagi wasn't the out-of-touch head of the US division of a Japanese company that took over a home grown American business (As in Gung Ho -1984).
He emigrated to the US as a child (2yo), went through the whole Manzanar thing, got an education and ended up creating a huge and successful company.
John comes off as a bit old fashioned (not the only way this was demonstrated)
Also, Die Hard has a theme of asshole supervisors that ignore their better informed employees (another 80s trope. See Ghostbusters - 1984). Takagi isn't framed that way. Although, he did have a company party on Christmas eve, which is a dick move.
Another fictional person that was in Manzanar was Mr Miyagi (Karate Kid - 1984)
Farewell to Manzanar (a memoir about the experience) was published in 1973
Submitted December 17, 2018 at 06:37AM by dmanww https://ift.tt/2PBY7Yd
