THIS WEEK MARKS the 30th anniversary of “Star Wars,” that revolutionary space opera that singlehandedly invented the modern nerd, and while we’re sure to see lots of documentaries about lightsabers and Princess Leia’s honeybun hair-do, we at TMM think there’s another aspect of The Force George Lucas Unleashed to be explored. That’s right, the fact that everyone in the “Star Wars” Universe is actually Asian. Not convinced? Read on, padawan.

A vastly technologically superior military superpower gets its butt handed to it by a scrappy band of guerrilla fighters using primitive weapons. Sound familiar? Sure it does—it’s the Vietnam War. Take the fact that Lucas passed up on a chance to work on “Apocalypse Now” (which featured Harrison Ford) to do the original “Star Wars” (which starred Harrison Ford), add in Lucas’s well-known feelings about U.S. imperialism and the era he created “Star Wars” in, and you’ve got yourself the Galactic V.C. Our only gripe: Ewoks? Really, George?

Fuck that midichlorian shit. We know that the Force is Lucas’s Southern California, hippy-dippy take on a whole slew of different Asian teachings, from Taoism to chakras to Brahman. When Obi-Wan Kenobi describes the Force to Luke Skywalker for the first time, he could be reading straight from “The Idiot’s Guide to Qi.” Hey, maybe that’s why Luke’s Jedi training seemed so much like Miss Hanako’s sixth-grade violin lessons.

Yoda’s facial features may have been modeled on Albert Einstein, but the little fella’s heart came from much farther east than Deutschland. One theory has it that the diminutive Jedi Master’s name came from “yoga,” while another posits that it’s supposed to be “yoddha,” the Sanskrit word for “warrior.” We think that Yoda’s really Lao Tse, one of the most important figures in Chinese philosophy and, like Yoda, one who grieved over the existence of violence and suffering. And maybe there’s some Pat Morita thrown in.

OK, we didn’t want to have to delve into the Prequel Trilogy here, but the Asian influences on Natalie Portman’s character are unmistakable. In the first movie, as part of her queenly duties, Padme Amidala wears kabuki make-up (and also bears resemblance to the kumari devi, Nepal’s living goddesses). Even her name is full of Asian undertones. Take your pick: She could be named after the Hindu goddess Padma, who personified a mythologically significant branch of the Ganges; or her name might have been plucked from a Tibetan Buddhist mantra for the bodhisattva of compassion, “om mani padme hung.”

Other important figures have similarly Asian-ish names, like Obi-Wan Kenobi (his name would later be re-used for a Shanghai nightclub in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”) and Qui-Gonn Jinn (think qigong, but with less heavy breathing and fewer old people in public parks).

Everyone knew things were getting bad for the Prequel Trilogy when what people were talking about most was how offensive the “ethnic” stereotypes were. With “ah so!” voice work that audiences interpreted as hackneyed Chinese or Japanese accents, the Mandarin-like baddies, the Trade Delegation, had audiences wondering whether Lucas came up with the script after a losing battle with a bowl of leftover General Tso’s chicken. Asian-Americans’ only solace: At least they weren’t stuck with Jar Jar Binks.

What color was the pessimistic robot C-3PO? Yellow. ‘Nuff said.

As any cineaste worth his salt knows, Lucas was tremendously influenced by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, and he lifted large elements of the plot of “Star Wars” from Kurosawa’s “Hidden Fortress,” particularly the narrative roles of R2-D2 and C-3PO (minus the urge to rape sleeping princesses, of course). And anyone who saw that movie’s climactic spear fight would hardly have been surprised by Darth Vader’s third-act redemption.

When designing a look for the original film’s signature baddie, Lucas’s team drew inspiration from the shape of a samurai helmet, or kabuto. But the Asian influences didn’t stop there—from the lightsaber/katana parallels and Shaolin-monk lifestyle of the Jedi to the samurai-like bushido (or warrior code) that the Jedi and even the Sith Lord himself seemed to live by, “Star Wars” sometimes seemed set less in a galaxy far, far away than in a place about 16 to 22 hours by air. •