Seth Rogen and James Franco star as two journalists in an upcoming blockbuster comedy titled ‘The Interview’, set to hit cinemas this spring. The film’s plot centres around a CIA-executed assassination attempt, through Rogen and Franco, on North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un.
The movie trailer sparked an incensed response from the totalitarian state on Wednesday.
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), released a statement issued by a representative from North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, branding the film as an ‘act of war’, ‘terrorism’, ‘reckless U.S. provocative insanity’ and labelling the film’s producers as ‘gangster-like scoundrels’.
“The act of making and screening such a movie that portrays an attack on our top leadership… is a most wanton act of terror and act of war, and is absolutely intolerable,” the spokesman said, before giving warning of a ‘resolute and merciless response’ should the U.S. not ban the film.
A recently-interviewed executive for the Centre for North Korea-U.S. Peace, Kim Myong-chol, commented that “a film about the assassination of a foreign leader mirrors what the U.S. has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine.
And let us not forget who killed Kennedy – Americans. In fact, President Obama should be careful in case the U.S. military wants to kill him as well.”
Like every other film that breaches the controversial domain, reviews are a mixed bag of uncertainty and distaste, but one only has to look at how a film like Team America, in which Americans mock and ridicule Kim Jong-il, garners one-liners and memorable scenes still popularly quoted today.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=https%3Ahttps%3A
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