Steven Seagal & Orientalism [Video Essay by Accented Cinema]

While Steven Seagal is treated as something of a joke and a political dupe nowadays, he was a somewhat prominent actor in action films for a long time. His skill in Aikido secured him roles for as long as Hollywood valued hyper-masculine fighters, but afterwards he quickly dropped out of the limelight and into direct-to-video B-movie fare.

Accented Cinema analyses his career with a particular focus on Seagal's obsession with Asia that he partially used to elevate himself, partially to provide exotic backgrounds to his unoriginal action films. It is deeply rooted in western narratives about Asia that Seagal took to ridiculous extremes and finally transformed into bizarre parody as Seagal's career waned.