Friday, October 24, 2008

Tragic Halloween Costumes (Diversity edition)

Okay, here's a duo of Halloween costumes that I guess were progressive for their time. First up - we have David Carradine as half-Chinese 19th-Century monk and martial artist Caine from the cult TV series KUNG FU. Of course as a kid, I thought the character was actually named "Kung Fu"  and the costume graphic doesn't dispute that concept. Also, I never questioned why the actor was clearly caucasian - I just took it for granted - I guess bald=Asian, like Yul Brynner in THE KING & I. It's believable that Carradine might be at least half Chinese, right? (In fact, Carradine has Irish, English, Scottish, Welsh, German, Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian and Cherokee ancestry - seemingly everything BUT Chinese). 
As far as the costume goes, the mask is pretty good - but once again the costume part is pretty bad. Though, much like yesterday's Barbarino - this would make a hot tee-shirt. If Caine ever travelled through time and needed someone to nurse his battle wounds, JULIA would be the perfect woman for the job!

I really like this costume, mostly because it doesn't say "JULIA" across the front of it. The mask is pleasant enough, though a bit dark compared to Diahann Carroll's skin tone, but I'll let that slide. I do like that it has a white nurse's cap on top and that the "cape" is emboldened with medical symbols, making it very authentic (for a kid's costume). What I also like is that this is actually a costume that could be used year-round whenever kids decided to play doctor - unlike most of the Halloween get-ups which seem so specific. This is totally one of my faves.

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