AAJA: Asian American Journalists Association


Rex Reed's Offensive Review

(AAJA sent the following letter in response to Rex Reed's review of the Korean film "Oldboy." )

April 8, 2005

Mr. Rex Reed
The New York Observer
54 E. 64th St.
New York, NY 10021

Dear Mr. Reed:

Related Links

    Asian Journalists Protest Rex Reed Film Review
    Richard Prince's Journal-isms

    "What else can you expect from a nation weaned on kimchi, a mix of raw garlic and cabbage buried underground until it rots, dug up from the grave and then served in earthenware pots sold at the Seoul airport as souvenirs?" Rex Reed wrote in the New York Observer, reviewing the Korean film, "Oldboy."

    "That one line reduces an entire people to a backward, 'different' lot that's meant to be mocked. The punch line of a cruel joke," wrote Abe Kwok, Media Watch Committee co-chair and national vice president for print of the Asian American Journalists Association, joining other Asian American groups in protest. "We're not laughing."

    The review has apparently been removed from the New York Observer Web site.

    Observer editor Peter W. Kaplan did not respond to telephone messages from Journal-isms.

So you thought Oldboy (March 28 review) a stinker, but did you need to denigrate a whole country to make the point?

As a prelude to ripping the Korean film, you wrote: "What else can you expect from a nation weaned on kimchi, a mix of raw garlic and cabbage buried underground until it rots, dug up from the grave and then served in earthenware pots sold at the Seoul airport as souvenirs?"

Yours was a mean-spirited slap of a sentence.

As journalists, critics included, we're asked to look for the universal in the particular -- but not like this. That one line reduces an entire people to a backward, "different" lot that's meant to be mocked. The punch line of a cruel joke.

We're not laughing.

Sincerely,

Abe Kwok
AAJA Media Watch Committee Co-Chair and AAJA National Vice President for Print

cc Peter W. Kaplan, editor, The New York Observer
Tom McGeveran, managing editor, The New York Observer