Film too rude and crude for Asian tastes

The Interview may be a joke of a film, but the Sony hacking incident, and escalating war of words between detractors of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong-un and the reportedly pro-Kim hackers, are deadly serious matters.

The United States is rightly proud of its tradition of free speech and Hollywood filmmaking. But to put a lame, zany ill-conceived comedy film on the frontline of a trumped-up battle to preserve Western values is a bit like backing Bozo the clown and refusing to back down. It suggests Hollywood can do no wrong. It echoes the one-sided nationalism that has recently been invoked in defense of the CIA's indefensible torture tactics; admit no wrong, if we do it, it cannot be bad.

Hollywood hardly holds the high moral ground; it has a rich history of self-censorship, pandering to vested interests and playing to power. Sony Executive Amy Pascal is no exception; she has vowed never to work with Mel Gibson after his drunken outburst against Jews, for which he later apologized, yet her reputation now rests on her decision to give the green light to a nasty, racist film written by a comic team looking for quick bucks and cheap laughs.

The climax scene in Seth Rogan's The Interview, in which an explosive projectile strikes the DPRK leader in the head, is not only not art, it also constitutes a kind of hate speech which would be fiercely contested if the object of the on-screen killing were a standing leader of the US or an ally.

The Sony hacks are unprecedented, but it is ludicrous to see them as an act of war as suggested by radio shock jock Howard Stern, and right-leaning America-firsters. The financial damage to Sony is real, and mounting, and it raises vexing issues of how to balance privacy and journalists' right to publish leaked documents and a host of other digital age conundrums that will be discussed for years to come.

But to prohibit discussions on leaked material or to say it is the equivalent of a bomb that incurs financial damage without killing anyone, which is to say, a kind of terror, is entirely specious reasoning. By that logic, the financial loss that Wall Street inflicted on US citizens and people of other countries in 2008 was a terror attack of far greater magnitude.

Akio Morita, the legendary head of Sony who built a world-class company from scratch on the principles of quality and prudence, thrift and innovation, would be horrified to see his legacy at risk because of a bloated, inane stoner picture. Morita admired the US and thought the US and Japan had a lot to teach each other, but he also said that American executives were ridiculously overpaid and lacked an understanding of Asia.

Morita emphasized the need for Sony to build bridges with neighboring countries in Asia, an important part of its electronics market. Sony's head office in Japan understands this, which is why Seth Rogen's The Interview was not slated to be shown in the Japanese market or anywhere on the Asian mainland. A film that gloats in depicting the killing of a living leader is simply too rude and crude for Asian tastes.

There's no magic fix for Sony in the face of its own lousy decision-making, but this time it was right to say no. If it does insist on releasing The Interview at some future date it would be prudent, and congruent with the best of the Hollywood tradition to edit out the gratuitous killing and gore and build on the comedy, earning its laughs the old fashioned way.

The author is a media researcher covering Asian politics.