‘The Batman’ scene depicting a subway attack on an Asian man criticized as ‘triggering,’ ‘insensitive’
By Ryan General
An early scene in the new DC Film “The Batman” has sparked concerns over its depiction of violence toward an Asian person.
Some members of the Asian American community have taken to social media to debate the sensitivity and relevance of the scene, which occurs within the film’s first 10 minutes and shows an Asian man at a subway being followed by a group preparing to assault him.
Before the man is actually attacked, the costumed vigilante intervenes and fights off the group. After he takes care of the bad guys, he tells them that he is “vengeance.” The Asian man is then shown to also be afraid of Batman.
On Twitter, some users called out the scene for being insensitive to the plight of Asian American communities who have been facing an increased level of violence in the last couple of years.
“Was this supposed to be commentary? Was it a blindspot? Was this filmed before or after the surge Asian hate crimes? It was quite triggering,” Dino-Ray Ramos, the editor-in-chief of entertainment website Diaspora, wrote in a tweet.
In many tweets, netizens warned other Asian American moviegoers about the controversial scene.
Meanwhile, other Twitter users expressed contrasting opinions while discussing whether the scene was an oversight or intended to highlight the rise of hate-related crimes and incidents against Asian Americans during the pandemic.
The three-hour film was filmed mostly between January 2020 and March 2021, a period that heavily overlaps with recent spikes in anti-Asian hate.
The film, which stars Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz, premiered on March 1 and was released on March 4.
Featured Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
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