A Japanese-American group on Monday demanded an apology over a film starring
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.
“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.
See the trailer here