Comments

1. Anonymous wrote:

   It looks terrible. Absolutely awful. And duh, offensive as well. Why did Masi Oka and Maggie Q agree to star in it? Who knows. I guess money really talks.

   Summer 2007 in movies had to be one of THE worst movie seasons for Asians and Asian-Americans. We kicked off with Fu Manchu-esque Captain Sao Feng in “Pirates of the Caribbean 3″ (#1 film at the box office). Then there was the “Asian hooker bitch” lines said for cheap laughs and oh-no-John-McClane-didn’t! factor in “Live Free or Die Hard.” Then there was the yellowface caricature courtesy Rob Schneider in “I Know Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” (#1 film). We have to deal with 90 minutes of Asian jokes in “Rush Hour 3″ (#1 film). Then there was “War” (Chinese gang lords vs. Japanese gang lords but the protagonist is white Jason Statham). Now there’s “Balls of Fury” which looks hideous.

   Why, in fact, does Hollywood hate us so much? An even better question is: why do stars like Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan, Maggie Q, Masi Oka and Jet Li agree to take on these sorts of roles?

   The best thing that happened out of all this was the news that China was removing all of Chow Yun-Fat’s scenes in “Pirates” before releasing the film in China, including the one where he tries to rape lily-white Keira Knightley.

   When you start agreeing with and applauding communist China’s editorial choices in regards to what can be shown in popular media, you know things are not as they should be.

   Posted 27 Aug 2007 at 8:33 am ¶

2. mireille wrote:

   The saddest part about it is that it has the biggest caste of asian american actors (who are actually talking as opposed to getting shot at in a rice field) of any hollywood movie in recent memory.

   Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution best make up for all this ching chong bullship. No, seriosuly, that movie sounds amazing.

   Posted 27 Aug 2007 at 10:26 am ¶

3. Wendi Muse wrote:

   thanks for posting this, Carmen. i just don’t understand why these stereotypes won’t die…it’s kind of insane

   Posted 27 Aug 2007 at 11:08 am ¶

4. Ash wrote:

   mm these stereotypes won’t die b/c they’re still kind of fun. poison blow darts? that is cool. puns with balls are funny. exotica is interesting, however inaccurate. and big men playing ping pong is humorous. it’s easy comedy!

   i find this less offensive than the last samurai, or even rush hour. at least there’s some sense of camp in this, an outrageousness in the whole thing and all its ching chongyness. or maybe i’ve just gotten burned out by railing against these stereotypes. watching this fat lead net maggie q will enrage.

   george lopez and masi oka, they’ll inject some wtf, white folks are dumb for buying into this type lines, right? is that enough to redeem the film, if it’s sort of self-conscious? probably not. but with the crap that’s out now, i might watch it.

   Posted 27 Aug 2007 at 11:44 am ¶

5. Allen wrote:

   Has anybody seen those incredible racist Hot Pockets commercials. That shit is blatantly unacceptable. They make Asians look ridiculous.

   Posted 27 Aug 2007 at 12:56 pm ¶

6. Lindsey wrote:

   I must be missing the onomatopoeic element. Where is it in the clip?

   The movie is supposed to be a riff on the old martial arts “death match” movies. Stupid? Definitely. (Well-done stupidity *can* be funny, depending on your personality.) But I’m not sure where the line is between ethnic insensitivity and movie genre parody. … I’d rather wait to see the full product to see where they miss that mark.

   Posted 27 Aug 2007 at 3:24 pm ¶

7. Brandon wrote:

   I really do believe they went too far with this one. Movies like Airplane, made in less culturally aware times, didn’t seem as blatantly racist as this crap. And they were funny, not just because they were lampooning disaster movies, but because they were just comical.

   Balls of Fury looks like a bunch of bad testicle puns and pokes at Asians, if not referencing some other movie.

   Even if I didn’t find it horrendously offensive, I’d still think it looked unfunny.

   Posted 27 Aug 2007 at 7:42 pm ¶

8. FrancesM wrote:

   I couldn’t even finish the trailer. *sigh*
   ~F

   Posted 28 Aug 2007 at 12:49 am ¶

9. Rj wrote:

   Neither could I.

   It’s really designed for 7 year old boys who have just discovered the meaning of the word “balls” and giggle every time it’s heard.

   Unfortunately, the same 7 year olds also giggle at cartoonish Asian fictional characters. It’s not that Asians are the only ones they have racist stereotypes of, it’s just that Asians happen to have a lower chance of being in the room at the time, so it’s therefore considered more acceptable to laugh.

   Posted 28 Aug 2007 at 1:06 pm ¶

10. Lisa wrote:

    “China was removing all of Chow Yun-Fat’s scenes in “Pirates” before releasing the film in China, including the one where he tries to rape lily-white Keira Knightley.”

    Actually, that’s untrue. They only removed the opening 15 minutes of his scenes, including the mass execution and the Singaporean gangsters and prostitutes. The rest of Chow’s film time, including the attempted rape, was shown unaltered.

    With Pirates, though, every single character was an overblown stereotype, as designed to be as tongue-in-cheek universally offensive as a South Park episode.

    “Balls” looks pretty obnoxiously dumb, but I’ll withhold judgement until the actual film. I suspect it will be a case of ironically satirizing stereotypes, but in such a way that it will be lost on 90% of its audience.

    Posted 28 Aug 2007 at 10:22 pm ¶