Are audiences so sensitive and offended by movie content nowadays?

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We've gone on holiday by mistake
Okay thanks, I am watching the video now.

I feel that Hollywood is the most diverse film industry in the world possibly. Sure it is run by white people, but it is more diverse than other film industries in the world that are not run by white people. The Hong Kong film industry is not as diverse, the East Indian film industry is not as diverse, etc. The Canadian one where I live, does not seem as diverse possibly, but it's getting close to Hollywood now I think.

So I find it ironic that the most diverse film industry, possibly Hollywood is the one that is picked on the most. Could it be that the reason why they are most diverse is the reason they are picked on the most, cause the complainers feel that that if they can get the most diverse one do things their way, than the rest will follow?

I love Korean cinema for example, but every time I watch a Korean movie, the filmmakers never have included any non-Asians in their movies so far from what I've seen. But I don't get bent out of shape about it, if that's the filmmakers choice.
Countries like Korea or Japan for example have much lower % of foreign nationals/differing ethnicity. Having a quick look Korea may have only 3-4% non Koreans whereas UK/US might be something like 20% non white population.
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Countries like Korea or Japan for example have much lower % of foreign nationals/differing ethnicity. Having a quick look Korea may have only 3-4% non Koreans whereas UK/US might be something like 20% non white population.
Is this really an excuse though for the people complaining about diversity? They want it as bad as they do, they wouldn't let Korean and Japanese cinema off the hook, just because of a lower foreign population.



We've gone on holiday by mistake
Is this really an excuse though for the people complaining about diversity? They want it as bad as they do, they wouldn't let Korean and Japanese cinema off the hook, just because of a lower foreign population.
I hate forced diversity in film/TV/adverts that's become quite irritating over the past decade.

I was simply saying that some countries like Korea have such a small % of differing ethnicities that having films with a diverse cast set in Korea would be odd.



The fact that more homogeneous societies than ours are not often criticized for being far more insular represents, I think, a pretty huge shift in progressive thinking.

When I was a kid, it was drilled into us that generalizations and stereotypes were bad, that you shouldn't blame or judge people for things they couldn't control, and that we should strive to treat people equally and see things from each others' point of view. I spent decades, like many people, internalizing these things, and believed them to be a key part of keeping a society both free and diverse. I still believe that.

At some point, the above was turned on its head by two things. First, by overriding these standards with concerns about power, which meant that they might apply to some people and not others (or some people more than others) based on their perceived power status. Second, that this power status could be determined by thoughtlessly divorcing an individual from their own life circumstances and aggrating the success (real or perceived) of their entire demographic group. The new way of thinking can't really criticize generalization because on some level it requires it.

So, when another place is more insular than the United States, you're still less likely to see criticism of it on that front because that would be perceived by some as "punching down." Which is to say, they would not be held to the same standards because those standards only apply to people higher up the cultural hierarchy, whatever the speaker perceives that to be.



I hate forced diversity in film/TV/adverts that's become quite irritating over the past decade....
Forced diversity? no such thing

I feel bad for all the Hispanic/Latino Americans who almost never get represented in movies despite the fact that they are the largest racial/ethnic group in America after whites. But Hollywood is convinced that America is literally only black and white




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I hate forced diversity in film/TV/adverts that's become quite irritating over the past decade.

I was simply saying that some countries like Korea have such a small % of differing ethnicities that having films with a diverse cast set in Korea would be odd.
Oh okay. Well would it seem kind of odd in the US though? For example in a lot of movies, the main character has a job like a spy, a cop, or a lawyer, or some job that is important, government wise, you could say. Are there a lot of non-white people in these jobs? Especially a spy movie, and joining the CIA? I would imagine they recruit white people a lot more often.

So I thought that maybe the reason why they got white actors to play those types of roles, is that it is common in real life for white people to occupy those kind of jobs. But I am not American and just guessing.



In my experience people who are upset about a lack of representation in media don't really care whether the rates of representation are roughly in line with the overall numbers or not.

When they're at their most thoughtful, they might say that such aggregations are facile (not that this principle is always consistently applied to other beliefs, mind you) and that minority representation is subtle and hard to quantify, and probably needs to outpace actual representation to really help minorities feel seen and valued by society. When they're at their least thoughtful, they never ask themselves the question at all and can't be bothered to spend five minutes Googling statistics before telling everyone it's a horrendous injustice.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Oh okay. Like for example, I remember a couple of years ago, online some people were complaining that they didn't like how the remake of Infernal Affairs (The Departed), because it didn't have an Asian cast like the original did, and they thought it was whitewashing. However, if it did have an Asian cast, wouldn't it seem strange? Maybe there are Asian gangs in Boston, but also, wouldn't it be strange if the majority of the Boston state police department were Asian as well though, for the setting?



Well, the best version of that argument (not a good argument, just the best one possible) would be that you don't need to set it in Boston at all. But yeah, sometimes the complaints are just reflexive or borderline incoherent, and I think that's a good example: in cases like that, they'd apparently rather the film not be made at all, since the thing they don't like is the only reason it might get made (or remade) in the first place. It's results like that that suggest some of these people are not arguing in good faith, and (consciously or otherwise) are just concerned with an expression of power or control. Which, by the way, also explains why they complain more about people and institutions listening to them at all than ones that seem to not even care.

That, I think, is the key to identifying which people might be worth talking to about these things, and which aren't.



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Oh okay.

Also, I kind of feel that it can go both ways though. For example, it was said before that The Farewell had trouble getting made, because producers in Hollywood did not want an all Asian American cast. However, the opposite is true for some movies, isn't it? For example, I read that when Martin Scorsese tried to get funding for Mean Streets, the producers wanted an all African-American cast, instead of Italians, so Martin had to go the extra mile to get funding that would allow for a white/Italian cast. And this was in the 70s. So is it true that it's the opposite sometimes, and producers will push for a non-white cast, when the director doesn't want it?



Korean movies are written for Korea. If the writing is with Korean characters then it will have a Korean actors. The thing about US, Canada, England, is that it's so mixed, even if you go to a bar, a friend circle would include white, black, Mexican, Indian etc. Somehow that doesn't translate into a movie. In Seoul, Tokyo etc., I stick out like a sore thumb! If movies are a reflection of the current times, then it should. If someone writes a story with that diverse set of characters, it would be hard to get funding.

But there are some foreign actors in Korea, playing some small roles in movies which require a foreign character, like a tourist, journalist etc.

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I'm sure it's true sometimes, yeah. Probably moreso now than before. I imagine it was pretty rare in the past, simply because it made less economic sense.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Oh okay. Well one thing I've noticed is that when it comes to films with a non-white major characters in them, the filmmaker is usually of the same ethnicity. So perhaps filmmaking like picking actors of their own face the roles, and prefer characters that maybe they see themselves in more so?



We've gone on holiday by mistake
Oh okay. Well would it seem kind of odd in the US though? For example in a lot of movies, the main character has a job like a spy, a cop, or a lawyer, or some job that is important, government wise, you could say. Are there a lot of non-white people in these jobs? Especially a spy movie, and joining the CIA? I would imagine they recruit white people a lot more often.

So I thought that maybe the reason why they got white actors to play those types of roles, is that it is common in real life for white people to occupy those kind of jobs. But I am not American and just guessing.
I remember my friend telling me he wanted to apply for MI5/MI6 after University, mid 2000s but as the war on terror was in full flow they were mainly looking for British Muslims.

From what I understand from books/movies/second hand sources etc the leadership ranks of say British or American intelligence come from connected families, white privilege, certain universities, skull and bones etc BUT, I imagine the boots on the ground and middle ranks are extremely diverse. What use are white spies going to be in the middle east or Asian block?



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Yep that's true, good point. I guess one movie with a non-white spy is Traitor (2008), since the story is about a spy who has to be Muslim to infiltrate an Islamic terrorism group.



Oh okay, but where is all this racial hatred coming from though, since movies have had lots of diversity in them for the last three decades or no so even?

And sure there are instances like LuLu Wang not being able to get a non-white cast from Disney, but that's just Disney. She still got it from somewhere else and it seemed to work. So things don't seem bad, like these millennial are making them out to be. I just don't get why millennial have to fight for something, that is behind their time, just because they missed doing so back then. And I'm a millennial too, but I don't understand. However, I grew up watching a lot of 90s and 2000s movies. I feel that maybe millennials don't actually watch many movies, so they are not aware of the diversity maybe?
Seriously?! You do realise that millennials range from 23 to around 38.

Have they really had ‘lots of diversity’? Just because there was more racism in the seventies doesn’t mean that racism doesn’t exist anymore. If you really think there’s ‘lots of diversity’ (and how do you measure that exactly? Your implication is that you think there’s ‘enough’), then you need to watch more films.

The irony is that previous generations have been just as censorious (see ‘video nasties’ for example).
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The trick is not minding
To add to the above, the early days of films had stringent rules regarding censorship. It’s nothing new. I’ve said this before. It, too, shall pass eventually.



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What does censorship and video nasties have to do with diversity?



I am the Watcher in the Night
It goes towards the topic about people being “too sensitive” these days. It’s always been a thing.
Are we really too sensitive these days?

Movies and TV is now more violent and sexually explicit than ever before.
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