North Korea Takes Seth Rogen Complaint To The UN

[Dalisclock]

An important distinction, though.
This is not a movie that's made by the US in any official capacity. This is a movie made by a bunch of Americans.
(And there are people in America who would want a movie where Obama is killed and beheaded for being a gay muslim abortionist or something)

If the government funded it and had oversight over it, it would be different.
But Hollywood doesn't represent the US government.

I don't know if NK realizes that, because I'm pretty sure their government runs their film industry(or at least are very closely tied). Or maybe they don't care.

Of course, I don't think NK has apologized for kidnapping a South Korean film director(and some other people, including his wife) so they could force him to make a Godzilla rip-off.

 

[Monsterfurby]

How many films have been made about the assassination of heads of state or government? Even with the assassin as main protagonist: Just ask the UK [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_%28film%29], France [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Jackal_%28film%29] and the USA (countless links I could give here)...

 

[Micah Weil]

I'm now imagining Bender's whole "let me laugh harder" skit done up in numerous accents.
I'm particularly pleased with the Nigerian UN Rep's rendition of it...

 

[IceStar100]

Is it bad I want to see this feel just becuase of this now...... That should be a tag line "this is the movie that might get Seth Rogan killed."

 

[DazBurger]

Money doesn't buy this kind of publicity!

 

[Jezzy54]

Here's a game you can play at home: Read North Korea's complaints about the movie out loud in the whiniest voice you can think of. It's very satisfying.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

man, this is becoming, like, weirdly meta all of a sudden. It's like a comedy is being written before our very eyes in the real world. This is freaking surreal

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

Edit:

One thing to realise here is that it isn't a generic 'assassinate the leader of a foreign' nation film where either the leader is purely a made up character or both the country and leader are made up, it's a film where a real leader will be represented. Usually leaders of countries are made up characters, even when nothing really happens to them.


Regardless, I am curious to see what NK do when this is released, and I certainly don't like what the people of that country are treated like. I just think it's understandable that NK would be a bit pissy about this film.

To be fair it is a comedy. Nothing about this is meant to be taken seriously. It's not like Katheryn Bigelow is making this or anything.

While I can't think of a comedy around assassinating a US president, there was a comedy film called Four Lions, about four dopey Islamic terrorists planning a suicide bombing in London. No one banned that one.

You beat me to it Mister! I would have assumed there would have been an outcry of "disrespectfullness" towards victims etc etc. Yet the general British public seemed pretty laid back about it. There is no limit to the depths of our humour!! Mwahaha!

 

[Beetlebum]

Dictatorships aren't big on the whole humor thing but this is quite funny.

However a thing to keep in mind is that everything NK does, it does only to benefit the party and the great/dear/supreme leader. It doesn't complain or go to the UN to effect things outside of NK, it does those things so it can tell its people about it.
"American pig-dogs are making film where they kill supreme leader, righteous party official complain to the UN." and when the UN invariably laughs it off "United Nations Pig-dogs side with filthy americans on film to assasinate supreme leader"

All so the North Korean people believe the party is great and the rest of the world is evil... and to distract from the terrible state their nation is in.

 

[Megalodon]

I think that the film is going a bit far, to be about the assassination of an actual named and living individual is a bit much. It could have just been "The president of North Korea" but they decided to go with Kim Jong Un. I can name loads of films where the "President of the United States" is in danger, and some of them are even blatant imitations of one president or another, but the actual name is usually not used which makes it acceptable. To actually name the president makes it worse.

That said it is funny to watch North Korea get all mad and throw idle threats around when I highly doubt they'll ever do anything about it.

To be fair, they couldn't make a film about killing the NK president, unless they set in before 1994. Kim il Sung is the 'Eternal President', and nobody else has ever held the title. /pedantry.

 

[Fox12]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

Edit:

One thing to realise here is that it isn't a generic 'assassinate the leader of a foreign' nation film where either the leader is purely a made up character or both the country and leader are made up, it's a film where a real leader will be represented. Usually leaders of countries are made up characters, even when nothing really happens to them.


Regardless, I am curious to see what NK do when this is released, and I certainly don't like what the people of that country are treated like. I just think it's understandable that NK would be a bit pissy about this film.

The thing is, we have things called rights and civil liberties here. If Rogen wants to make this film, let him. North Korea doesn't seem to understand that the U.S. people don't like their government controlling every aspect of their lives, unlike in N. Korea itself, where they already censor everything.

Besides, we made comedy skits about assassinating Hitler all the time during WW2. This isn't really new. We'll stop producing films that mock Kim Jong Un when he stops being a war criminal who kills his own people.

 

[The Great JT]

Y'know what? Please, go to the UN and complain. I can't wait to see how they throw you out on your ass and say "get some real problems, I'm trying to prevent war in the Middle East here!"

 

[Karnesdorff]

Something to keep in mind here.

The leaders of NK are not idiots. They know that, if they start anything, their entire country will be ended within months. They'll kill millions of civilians in Seoul with artillery before being taken down, sure, that's pretty much one of the few reasons NK still exists as a country. But there is no scenario involving just NK vs. SK and the US forces in a shooting war that doesn't involve NK becoming part of a unified 'Korea' again. If the Chinese give direct military support, then it's more complicated, but in that case China is choosing between a nominal ally that gives it nothing but embarrassment on the world stage and refusing to listen to anything they say versus their number 1 trading partner. It's not going to take long for them to decide on that one. The only question they ask in foreign policy is 'What's best for China?' and what's best for China here is staying neutral and then picking up as many of those lucrative rebuilding contracts as it can while getting permission to have the NK/China border sealed.

So the NK leaders will scream, shout, but actual acts of violence? No. They know that only leads to them dead in a ditch and Seoul as the only capital on the Korean peninsula.

K.

 

[Metalrocks]

thats all i have to say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n5E7feJHw0

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Someone has to apologize for James Franco.

 

[michael87cn]

Well, to be fair... none of us would like to see a movie jokingly or not, made about killing us. I mean.... yeah ...

I also don't really think a nation is harmless, or that they are throwing 'pissy fits'. I also don't think its funny that they are threatening war...

You'll see how funny it is when lots of people are dying... though I doubt that will happen, crazier things have happened... when cultures clash, you need to realize that they have different values and ways of understanding. Different ways of communicating. What you see as a joke could be a brazen threat or direct insult. Just because something is funny to us may not be to them (this is obvious, but oh well).

I'd really like to NOT see another war already. Especially over a really stupid movie. Here's an idea, lets come up with original ideas for movies that entertain people.

Oh. That's impossible because the people making these films are just in it for money.

Guess we're all screwed then.

 

[Rabidkitten]

Hey North Korea, we have this thing called the Freedom of Speech in the US. The US government literally can not stop the release of that film, nor the UN. So suck it fascists.

 

[XenoScifi]

Although I agree NK has a point, I do feel the movie is being taken out of context by NK. I mean this is not the first time NK has been jabbed at by a major boxoffice movie (Team American) and IMO that movie was probably way worse then this one with be. Seth and James are no where near as ballsy as Matt and Trey are.

 

[Vedli]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

Edit:

One thing to realise here is that it isn't a generic 'assassinate the leader of a foreign' nation film where either the leader is purely a made up character or both the country and leader are made up, it's a film where a real leader will be represented. Usually leaders of countries are made up characters, even when nothing really happens to them.


Regardless, I am curious to see what NK do when this is released, and I certainly don't like what the people of that country are treated like. I just think it's understandable that NK would be a bit pissy about this film.

You know I thought you were being sarcastic (and I'm still hoping you are) and was making a reference to that one Oliver Stone film staring Keven Costner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_movie
And if you were, the sarcasm may be a bit to subtle or no one who replied has heard of it.


Also you know, the 1st Amendment, if your not.