Japanese American Group Complains About Comedy Trailer

[Mulboyne]

[YT]UeZMNxB0BOQ[/YT]
The scene starts at 1:58 secs

AFP: Japanese American group outraged by film
A Japanese-American group on Monday demanded an apology over a film starring Jeremy Piven due to a scene satirically depicting the mob beating of an Asian American man. "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard," which opened in sixth place in the North American box office last Friday, is a comedy about a down-and-out used-car salesman played by Piven who tries to make it big with a Fourth of July sale. On the trailer seen on the movie's official website, Piven's character is seen shouting at an Asian American employee at the dealership: "Don't get me started on Pearl Harbor. We are Americans and they are the enemy! Never again!" As the Asian American -- played by Korean American actor Ken Jeong -- sheepishly joins in chanting "Never again!," an older white man says, "Let's get him!" and the employees beat him up. The Japanese American Citizens League said Piven's character also used the racial slur "Jap" in the movie and, acknowledging it was a hate crime, asked employees to say the Asian American was attacking them with a samurai sword. Saying the film showed a "shocking lack of judgment," the group said the producers "need to apologize because they crossed a line in thinking they could use a racial slur simply for the sake of a laugh." "Japanese Americans are particularly offended because we painfully recall how slurs were used during the 1940s to vilify and demean our community, resulting in a forced eviction from our homes," it said...more...

[xenomorph42]

I don't even know where to start with this one. Jeeez!:rolleyes:

[Blah Pete]

Sounds like someone needs to clean the sand out of their vagina.

[Coligny]

I don't even know where to start with this one. Jeeez!:rolleyes:

Well... they have the right to be outraged... the problem start when the step on our right not to give a fuck about their outrage...

It's like freedom of expression... yeah... they have the right to speak... the same way I have the right not to listen...

[Mike Oxlong]

Perhaps some sort of ombudsman should be appointed to look into this...here's a guy who might have some time on his hands soon.

[Takechanpoo]

This kind of insult is permitted because Japanese never revenge unlike Chinese and Korean.
At first we Japanese must start to bully gaijins living in Japan as retribution thoroughly.

[bolt_krank]

I think they have a valid point, after all it's not like Japan ever descriminates....

[Mulboyne]

Adamukun makes an interesting point elsewhere:

Inciting Asian-American outrage could be a typical piece of PR strategy for Frat Pack movies (Dodgeball)...General audiences love edgy humor, and offending one of the smallest minorities is low-risk vs extra publicity

[Kuang_Grade]

Adamukun makes an interesting point elsewhere:

That's giving their marketing folks way too much credit. Unless it involves giant robots smashing each other, there is no longer such a thing as a 'general audience' for movies anymore and if edgy humor was popular in the US, Bruno would have not imploded after its first week. US movie going audiences like fairly crass/and or ridiculous humor, which is one of the reasons Borat did so well a few years back...while Borat definitely had an edge, it had enough crazed lines like 'You telling me the man who try to put a rubber fist in my anus was a homosexual?' to get good word of mouth to be a success in spite of its edge.

I can see them putting that scene in the trailer because it tested well with test audiences but plotting that a 'controversy' would be beneficial is too clever by half...besides, if that was the case, they should have pushed so it broke before the movie opened not after (ie, the film they couldn't stop...see for yourself what the controversy is all about)...films like this have 2 week box office life before they start getting shunted off screens and by the time this protest actually gets noticed by anyone, the first week is going to be over.

[dimwit]

I always thought feighing outrage is what Japanese-American do -that and having beauty contests. Sort of defines them culturally like Mexicans and overcrowded pick-up trucks.

[Greji]

At first we Japanese must start to bully gaijins living in Japan as retribution thoroughly.

Yup, ain't it fun! Just be careful about which one you bully. It can be tough to tie your necktie with your asshole stretched around your neck.....

[amdg]

Said it was for mature audiences only. I can't watch.

[Mock Cockpit]

I dunno, made me laugh.

[sublight]

Reminds me of the old Mad Magazine parody of The Goonies.

"Every character in this film is an ethnic stereotype!"

"There aren't any blacks, though."

"Yeah, the NAACP wrote to Spielberg about that."

"They sent him a protest letter?"

"No, a thank-you note."

[pheyton]

If the scene had been funny I would haven given them a pass , but it sucked so hang the fuckin director and the producers. Throw Take into that hangman fest too.