Monster Hunter was released in China on Friday, but the film has already stirred up controversy for featuring a scene which has been deemed to be racist and "insulting" to Chinese people.
The Paul W.S. Anderson video game adaptation reportedly includes a 10-second exchange between Asian American actor/rapper Jin Au-Yeung, aka MC Jin, and an unnamed white male actor, in which the former makes a tasteless joke with inferred racist connotations.
"In the scene, a white male character and an Asian character played by Jin are driving together at high speed," writes Variety. “'What'?” says the former. “'Look at my knees'!” shouts Jin. “'What kind of knees are these'?” asks his companion. “'Chi-nese'!” jokes Jin, punning on the word’s last syllable."
An example of Anderson's typically dreadful dialogue? Most definitely. Racist? Well, the backlash mostly appears to have stemmed from the "joke" being interpreted as a reference to racist schoolyard rhyme, “Chi-nese, Jap-a-nese, dir-ty knees, look at these,” which is usually accompanied by knee slaps and slant-eyed gestures.
Cinemas around the country have now pulled the movie from their line-ups. A quarter of all film screenings in China were said to be allotted to Monster Hunter on Friday, but by Saturday that had fallen to only 0.7%. A new version of the movie without the scene in question is reportedly being worked on, but it's unclear if the censored cut will be re-released.
What do you guys make of this? Is the outrage warranted, or an overreaction? Drop us a comment down below.