The controversy surrounding the movie The Interview and its aftermath intensified this week as Sony reversed itself and released it on both digital platforms and in theaters.
North Korea today called President Obama “a monkey living in a tropical forest” and blamed the US for knocking out its internet, reports the Daily Mail. The White House has previously denied having anything to do with the lost of internet in North Korea, but has not responded to the latest barb from Pyongyang.
In a related note, Korean Americans are praising the release of the movie while one Korean American reviewer called the movie sexist and racist.
“Kim Jong Un doesn’t have a good reputation,” said Kang Hoon Yu, president of the Korean American Association of New Jersey to NorthJersey.com. “It’s OK to laugh at him.”
But Maxine Builder in her review for The Medium said many of those laughs come at the expense of Asians.
“Many of the jokes in The Interview are at the expense of well-worn Asian stereotypes, and the movie’s humor relies heavily on one-dimensional depictions of Asians that abound in American media that add little to the satire itself. As a Korean American woman, I found the movie’s orientalism more offensive than any satirical depiction of Kim Jong-Un and the North Korean government.
“The use of broken English, and making fun of Asian languages, is one of the first boxes this movie ticks.”
Have you seen The Interview. What did you think of it? Share your thoughts below.
