In a world starved for blockbuster films, as most get pushed to streaming services or delayed until 2021, “Monster Hunter” looked like it could help drive business to theaters, especially in China. However, one line from the film that echoes a racist chant that kids used to say decades ago is forcing cinemas in the Middle Kingdom to pull the film.
In the film, there’s a short exchange where one character says, “Look at my knees. What kind of knees are these? Chinese.” This is a racist joke that immediately caught the attention of Chinese crowds and forced the film to be pulled from cinemas in that country. To its credit, the studio behind the film quickly edited out the line so that it could be put back in cinemas. But obviously, the damage has been done.
Now, we have the filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson and actors Milla Jovovich and Jin Au-Yeung (who says the line in the movie) coming out with their full apologies for the use of racist language.
“I am absolutely devastated that a line from our movie, ‘Monster Hunter,’ has offended some audience members in China,” said Anderson (via Deadline). “I apologize for any anxiety or upset that this line and its interpretation caused. ‘Monster Hunter’ was made as fun entertainment and I am mortified that anything within it has caused unintentional offense. We have respectfully removed the line from the movie. It was never our intention to send a message of discrimination or disrespect to anyone. To the contrary — at its heart our movie is about unity.”
As the person who says the line in the film, Jin also apologized on Instagram, where he wrote, “‘Monster Hunter’ movie was recently released in China and there has been severe controversy due to a line my character says. It’s unfortunate that it has escalated to this level, especially since the line was intended to be uplifting. I felt a need to address this situation because what is at stake is not my career but something even more dear to my heart – my roots. I’ve spent the last 20 years using my platform to embrace and be a positive voice for my community. I am and will always be proud of my heritage. To my Chinese fans, I appreciate all your support and understanding during this time.”
And in response to his post, Jovovich replied, “I’m so sad that you feel the need to apologize. You are amazing and have always been so outspoken about your pride in your Chinese heritage. The line you improvised in the film was done to remind people of that pride, not to insult people. We should have researched the historical origin of it and that’s 100% on us, but you didn’t do ANYTHING wrong. None of us had ever heard the ‘dirty knees’ reference. You included. It was an unfortunate mistake and the Chinese translation didn’t help. We adore you Jin and are so proud to have worked with you on this fun and exciting project and I hope you don’t let this get you down man. It was our fault for not doing our due diligence and finding the WW2 era rhyme that’s caused this uproar. We love you Jin.”
We’ll have to see how badly this controversy affects the film’s international box office, as China looked to be a huge country for the film to do well in. And if you’re in the US, you’ll be able to see “Monster Hunter” when it arrives on December 18.
