The Monster Hunter movie has been accused of including a racist joke shared between two characters, and Capcom has issued a statement regarding the controversy.
This isn't an excellent start for the movie, which was released in China, Germany, Japan, and the UK only yesterday. Monster Hunter has been pulled from theatres in China, with authorities censoring mentions of the movie online, and claims are even circulating that the modified version of the movie excluding this line have also been rejected.
A recording of the scene was uploaded to social media by industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, who explains why the dialogue has elicited such a reaction in China. One soldier, driving in a jeep across the desert, asks another, "Look at my knees! What kind of knees are these?" The other character, confused, doesn't reply. The soldier answers their own question with "Chi-knees."
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This has been interpreted to be a reference to a racist playground song in English-speaking countries in the 20th century. The full phrase implies that people from Asian countries are dirty, and though it is a historic chant, it is a false prejudice that has been exacerbated by misinformation surrounding the coronavirus crisis. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the Chinese subtitles for this scene do not match what was said in English, which suggests that translators knew that this joke wasn't going to be received warmly.
It's not a good look, and Capcom has distanced itself from the movie in an official statement. The scene has been brought to its attention, and it clarified that it is not the producer of the Monster Hunter movie, as director Paul W. S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt acquired the rights for an adaptation in 2016. It added that it will "report the situation to the relevant film companies to investigate."
While this occurs, people have been expressing their disapproval of the controversial content by review-bombing Monster Hunter: World. At the time of writing, almost 2,000 negative user reviews have been submitted to Steam over the course of two days. A lot of them are directly referencing the racist joke in the movie, and a proportion of them are peppered with their own edgy language and unrelated memes. What a mess. We'll update you as and when we know more.
Featured Image Credit: Capcom, Sony Pictures Releasing