The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is now demanding an apology for a scene in the new film, “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,” in which a character jokingly depicts a mob beating of an Asian American character. The movie is about a notorious used car salesman who takes on a big Fourth of July sale. During the scene in question, actor Jeremy Piven fires up his fellow salesmen with a pep talk, invoking World War II: “Don’t get me started on Pearl Harbor. We are Americans and they are the enemy! Never again!” The scene culminates with an angry mob beating up the only Asian American person in the room, Teddy Dang (played by Ken Jeong). Piven’s character also uses the racial slur ‘Jap’ in the scene and, acknowledging it was a hate crime, conspires with employees to say that Dang was attacking them with a ‘samurai sword’ and ‘Chinese throwing stars’. Saying the film showed a “shocking lack of judgment,” JACL said the producers “need to apologize because they crossed a line in thinking they could use a racial slur simply for the sake of a laugh.” Paramount responded that ‘The Goods’ “satirizes and exaggerates the extremes of the sales and celebrity culture” and “is in no way meant to be mean-spirited, disparaging or hurtful to any individuals and we regret any offense taken.”.
