AMC Theatres Mislabels Bong Joon Ho’s ‘Parasite’ as a Film About a ‘Japanese Family’
By Jin Hyun
AMC Theatres is being criticized online following a mistake on their Best New Movies list for October 2019 which listed South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s award-winning “Parasite” as a story about a “rich Japanese family.”
The mistake was picked up by a Korean social media user on MissyUSA who wrote, “On AMC’s monthly recommended movies list, they seemed to have described the subject of ‘Parasite’ as a ‘Japanese family.’ At such a sensitive and tense time as well!”
The user concluded the post by asking others where she could report the error and suggest a revision.
Korean social media users have since commented on the matter in frustration and confusion:
One user wrote, “I wonder why they would have thought this was a Japanese family… do English-speakers really not know how to differentiate between Korean and Japanese languages?”
Another suggested the most productive way to fix such a matter, “All emotions aside, I feel the situation should be approached in a way we can let them know to correct the fact. Just to say this is a famous, award-winning movie but they’ve mislabeled the Korean family as a Japanese family and we’re just letting them know in a helpful tone.”
What appears to have been a careless yet innocent mistake on the company’s part comes at a time during increased political tensions between the two East Asian countries.
Most recently the two countries have been caught in a bitter trade war as Japan’s ultra-conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and South Korea’s liberal president, Moon Jae-in, continue to disagree over war crimes and grievances.
AMC’s list was published on September 24, but the mistake was discovered nearly a month later, the company has quietly resolved the issue just this morning by omitting the word “Japanese” and writing, “Ki-taek (Kang-ho Song) lucks into a job helping out the members of a rich family when his friend moves to America and asks him to take his place.”
“Parasite” is a Palme d’Or-winning, genre-bending, indie film about a South Korean working-class family, the Kims, who develop an insidiously subtle scheme to work for a wealthy upper-class family, the Parks.
Their plans begin to crumble as class discrimination and greed destroy the fragile symbiotic relationship they’ve built between themselves.
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