Racist movie comments

I was reading an interesting review by Roger Ebert of the Korean Movie Oldboy. Now I have no idea if the movie is actually any good, but his review piqued my curiosity so I checked it out at rottentomatoes to see what other reviewers had said. The blurb from Rex Reeds negative review caught my eye so I decided to take a look. I don't like rex reed anyways but what followed really shocked me. Now I have nothing against people not liking a movie for gratuitous violence but I don't care for reviewers who slam a good movie that also happens to be violent solely for the gore. Which seems to be his main complaint. Same goes for sex. Anyways it's the first few lines of his review that really caused my jaw to drop:

"
For sewage in a cocktail shaker, there is Oldboy, a noxious helping of Korean Grand Guignol as pointless as it is shocking. What else can you expect from a nation weaned on kimchi, a mixture of raw garlic and cabbage buried underground until it rots, dug up from the grave and then served in earthenware pots sold at the Seoul airport as souvenirs?
"

WTF! Am I the only one outraged by this?

You can read both his review and Roger Eberts here:

(At the very bottom of the page)
http://www.observer.com/pages/onthetown.asp

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050324/REVIEWS/50310001/-1/email_headlines

Yeah, that is enraging, alright!!

I'm not really offended by it because there is a lot of truth to what he says. Kimchi is a normal part of the Korean diet and has been around for centuries. (I'm not Korean either)

They do movies on a regular basis considered grand guignol and from the sounds of the movie it's no different than the others which get this label. I consider it a genre of moviemaking because of the shock value.

It sounds like to me that Rex Reed doesn't care for these type of movies anyway and really had no business reviewing it. He's too biased against them in the first place (the movie, not the people)

Considering who it is, Rex Reed's never been one to hold much back in any of his reviews.

Write a nasty email if you're offended. Don't expect much, though.

he states it. Sure I understand that kimchi is a staple in Korea and that it may taste pretty bad. Sure this may be part of a bad genre of films, I don't know. But the statements "what can you expect from a nation weaned on kimchi" and the opening line saying the movie is sewage and the latter description of kimchi as essentially sewage can't help but elicit the feeling that he is dumping not on the movie but the society as a whole.

It's hard not to read it that way. He shouldn't be allowed to get away with that shit.

I went back and reread it. It reads to me that he hates kimchi and given that it's a part of the culture, so are movies like these.

In the opening he says 'sewage in a cocktail shaker' and that refers to the movie.

It doesn't come across as racist to me, but I can see where some would make that connection.

else can you expect from a nation of people eating mad cow steak, or something. I can't believe this, it's pretty bad.

I'd like to hear Margaret Cho respond to this.

I found that movie to be just plain bad and I'm a major movie lover. It was grotesque and over the top. Watching it I can see why some found it offensive even though I wasn't offended unless you count the pointless violence.

You could say the same thing about a Norwegian movie and lutefisk, I suppose, but it would still come off as ignorant and stereotypical, if not "racist" per se. I can't believe his editors nodded on this one.

Kimchi rocks, however. :thumbsup:

but I can see where some would see it that way. Korea does a lot of movies like this...much more than most other countries including this one. It's practically the norm for them.

I do think Reed was equating kimchi and these gore fests to being the norm for Korea.

I would bet the editors stayed quiet because there might be a clause in his contract which says that nothing can be changed unless Reed agrees to it.

(I try to be one) May I always have the humility to realize a good editor can improve my prose and save my ass. :)

I don't know much about Korean film--but then, I'm not a film critic, and you'd think one who's been at it as long as he has would realize this and not act like he'd never been exposed to it before. And that our own culture has lots of stuff in it that might look pretty weird to an outsider.

When it comes to content I wouldn't be surprised if it was just that way. Reed's been around a long time.