8 Asians

Ken Jeong is in another movie titled The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard that just opened last week, and has embroiled himself in another controversy:

“Several Asian American media advocacy groups, including The Japanese American Citizens League, Imada Wong Communications Group, and Media Action Network for Asian Americans are planning to protest at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles on Friday August 21… In “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard”, moviegoers see Dr. Ken as Teddy Dang getting stomped on by a group of angry co-workers after Jeremy Piven’s character incites violence by giving a supposed pep talk to his sales team.”

In the movie, the car dealership manager makes reference to “Japs” and Pearl Harbor prior to beating Teddy, even though Dang is Chinese. I’m sure the screenwriters are probably not aware of Vincent Chin and how that film scene calling a Chinese American a Jap was eerily similar to the beating death of Chin over 25 years ago. Nevertheless, there could have been plenty of other ways for comedic effect to have ‘motivated’ the sales members rather than beating Ken’s character and self-describing that act — accurately –  as a hate crime.

Is Ken Jeong even aware of the similarities of that scene to what happened with Vincent Chin, or has any thoughts and concerns of being portrayed the way he was? Given his current role and his most recent appearance in The Hangover, you have to wonder.  He’s certainly capitalizing on his 15 minutes of fame, as evidence that I saw a TV trailer for another movie that Ken will be in opening on September 4th, All About Steve; I hope Ken doesn’t embarrass himself again by playing up to stereotypes or putting himself in compromising scenes. I liked Ken when I first saw him as a doctor in Knocked Up, playing a role that had nothing to do with him being Asian, but he needs to stop being the William Hung of movies and more like our Roger Fan.

[Editors note: The protest is scheduled for tonight, 4:30pm PST outside of Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles. More information can be found on Angry Asian Man.]