The actor, Joe Nakashima, is simply listed in the credits of the film as "Old Hawaiian Man," and, like the Ula character, is simply used by the filmmakers as a tool for comic relief.
This desultory treatment is nevertheless emblematic of how the vast majority of the native Island characters are depicted in the film. Unlike Henry, Lucy, and Lucy's family, we never get a real image of their intimate, emotional lives or the circumstances of their lives. They are simply there for the entertainment - and service - of the European-American characters, who are the real protagonists of the film.
This is easy to see when evaluating the occupational roles that the characters in the film fill. At the center of the movie, of course, is Henry Roth, who is a veterinarian - a white-collar profession that requires a high degree of education. The Islanders, on the other hand, are largely portrayed as servants. Chief among these is the restaurant staff, but also the police officer who appears near the end of the film to give Lucy a ticket for an expired license plate - an event that makes her realize that something in her life is amiss. Nick (Pomaikai Brown), the obese, greasy cook in the restaurant, is the prototypical emasculated male ethnic stereotype. Despite his weight and strength, he is controlled by Sue (Amy Hill), the stereotypical Island matron who runs the restaurant and serves the clients.
Finally, 50 First Dates makes use of gender stereotyping as a means of comic relief. This is most evident at Henry's work, where he is assisted by Alexa (Luisa Strus), a gender ambiguous individual from Austria. One day at work, when confiding her sexual frustration, Alexa offers herself sexually to Henry. Henry's response to her is that he is not into guys.
Later, when Henry is in a restaurant on a date, he decides that he is not interested in having sex with the horny tourist. He suggests that Alexa, who happens to be sitting at the bar, might be a better choice. "But isn't that a woman?" his date responds. Cue the...
Sadly, 50 First Dates seems to be emblematic of the Hollywood tendency to employ such stereotypes as grounds for laughter. There is nothing subversive about it, as these stereotypes only mean to reinforce ideas that are quite common in our society. What is more, in that they are presented as "harmless entertainment," they give people permission to laugh at stereotypes that would most likely hurt people's feelings in the real world, while clearly pandering to the white, European-American audience's perception of the Other. It justifies relaxing from the mores that the tenets of political correctness have attempted to enforce in the previous decades through such measures as affirmative action, and allows us to laugh at racist ideas without having to feel guilty. What is more, it reaffirms normative gender roles and effectively ostracizes all those who are unable to fit into such categories.
It is highly unlikely that gender ambiguous individuals and native Hawaiian islanders would find much of the so-called humor in 50 First Dates very appealing. But clearly, this film was not made for such individuals. It was made for the mainstream, and thus serves as a tool for reinforcing the status quo.
Ultimately, it is not the native Hawaiian Islanders or the gender-ambiguous individuals who matter much in the scheme of 50 First Dates. Take away the "exotic" locale and the individuals who come attached to it, and you have a typical Hollywood story about two "normal" (i.e. white, heterosexual) individuals and their romantic entanglement. This is quite stereotypical in itself, as an emblem of Hollywood's machinery, in that it refuses to deviate from such norms. Stereotypes in 50 First Dates thus serve a double purpose: to reinforce preconceived societal notions about ethnic and gender minorities, while asserting the supremacy of those who are "lucky" enough not to fit into such "restrictive" categories.
