Going back to his Perry Mason days, Raymond Burr liked to feature Asian actors in plots centered on Asian themes and issues. George Takei and others were featured in Perry Mason episodes, as they would in Ironside. Benson Fong, who plays the father here, was in Perry Mason four times and not just in minor roles.
This Ironside episode is interesting because, like how Ironside dealt with illegal immigration, it presents a problem in the community not as black and white, but nuanced. Here, it's the problem of youth unemployment and perceived exploitation by the older Asian business generation. Fong admits that it's true, arguing that the youth have a point and might have to leave Chinatown as the older generation has no solutions.
The surprise here is that Irene Tsu is revealed as an undercover cop about halfway through the episode. I certainly didn't see that coming! What's unfortunate is that she is then made out to be a bit of a ditz, even though she seemed pretty darn capable. Fran Belding and even Eve Whitfield made much, much worse mistakes than Irene and they weren't going to be banished to traffic duty (Eve in particular seemed to fall for every criminal that wandered around). I chalk it up to sexism, though, although we can't ignore racism. In an earlier episode there's a Black policewoman who is also capable and Ed and Don treat her basically like a prostitute! As does the director, who lingers the camera on her legs.
Anyway, they do give Irene an action scene, where she uses karate. Now, why Fran doesn't figure out that that might be handy to know, is beyond me. How many episodes have there been where Fran is easily subdued by men she could whip pretty well if she only had an ounce of training?
There's a great, fun, homage to Bruce Lee and the Kung Fu movies during a scene where Irene's character saves Ed and Fran with her karate. The lights are dimmed so it enables a true karate expert to double for Irene and the director does some stop-action "stills" of the action! Since the director is Arnold Laven, a prolific but old-time director going back years (such as producing the Rifleman), we have to give him props for such innovation, although likely it was in the editing room that they did it. I would bet a young editor said, "You know what would be really cool.......?" and convinced them.
A surprisingly complex episode (you'll notice Chinese Cultural Revolution posters in the background, for example, and Ed harassing the youngsters for possibly admiring Mao!).
You'll recognize the actor, Mako, in this, and his voice as well. His voice was in Mutant Turtles and many other things, and I remember him well from the two Conan the Barbarian films with Arnold. Benson Fong, what a career! He played Tommy Chan in the Charlie Chan movies of the 1940's!
The Ironside/Star Trek connection is represented by Irene Tsu appearing in Star Trek: Voyager.
Enjoy.
This Ironside episode is interesting because, like how Ironside dealt with illegal immigration, it presents a problem in the community not as black and white, but nuanced. Here, it's the problem of youth unemployment and perceived exploitation by the older Asian business generation. Fong admits that it's true, arguing that the youth have a point and might have to leave Chinatown as the older generation has no solutions.
The surprise here is that Irene Tsu is revealed as an undercover cop about halfway through the episode. I certainly didn't see that coming! What's unfortunate is that she is then made out to be a bit of a ditz, even though she seemed pretty darn capable. Fran Belding and even Eve Whitfield made much, much worse mistakes than Irene and they weren't going to be banished to traffic duty (Eve in particular seemed to fall for every criminal that wandered around). I chalk it up to sexism, though, although we can't ignore racism. In an earlier episode there's a Black policewoman who is also capable and Ed and Don treat her basically like a prostitute! As does the director, who lingers the camera on her legs.
Anyway, they do give Irene an action scene, where she uses karate. Now, why Fran doesn't figure out that that might be handy to know, is beyond me. How many episodes have there been where Fran is easily subdued by men she could whip pretty well if she only had an ounce of training?
There's a great, fun, homage to Bruce Lee and the Kung Fu movies during a scene where Irene's character saves Ed and Fran with her karate. The lights are dimmed so it enables a true karate expert to double for Irene and the director does some stop-action "stills" of the action! Since the director is Arnold Laven, a prolific but old-time director going back years (such as producing the Rifleman), we have to give him props for such innovation, although likely it was in the editing room that they did it. I would bet a young editor said, "You know what would be really cool.......?" and convinced them.
A surprisingly complex episode (you'll notice Chinese Cultural Revolution posters in the background, for example, and Ed harassing the youngsters for possibly admiring Mao!).
You'll recognize the actor, Mako, in this, and his voice as well. His voice was in Mutant Turtles and many other things, and I remember him well from the two Conan the Barbarian films with Arnold. Benson Fong, what a career! He played Tommy Chan in the Charlie Chan movies of the 1940's!
The Ironside/Star Trek connection is represented by Irene Tsu appearing in Star Trek: Voyager.
Enjoy.
