Monster Hunter: World review-bombed on Steam amid movie backlash in China

Monster Hunter: World is getting review-bombed on Steam over a racist joke in the Monster Hunter movie.

The Paul W. S. Anderson-directed Monster Hunter movie launched in China this week - and it has not gone down well there.

Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad tweeted a clip of the movie that shows an American soldier ask another American soldier: "What are my knees?... What kind of knees are these?... Chi-knees."

Great writing in the Monster Hunter movie... pic.twitter.com/jTRnKOClCi

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 4, 2020

Ahmad points out the joke is being linked to the phrase "Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees - look at these?", which has been called a racist playground chant in English-speaking countries used to mock children of Asian origin.

According to Ahmad, the subtitles mention a Chinese idiom as the joke is spoken in English. Rather than slip through unnoticed, this difference has just contributed to the controversy, Ahmad points out.

In China, Monster Hunter developer Capcom was forced to issue a statement on Weibo distancing itself from the movie, saying it was the work of "different companies", and that it had reported the feedback to the movie makers.

However, as has been pointed out by fans, Capcom recently launched a Monster Hunter movie crossover with Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, adding film star Milla Jovovich's Artemis as a playable character in the game. Artemis is even voiced by Milla Jovovich herself.

Capcom has issued a statement on social media due to the backlash, stating that it is aware of the situation and the controversy. That it is not the producer on the MH movie and that it will report the situation to the relevant film companies to investigate. pic.twitter.com/KxMWP6H69I

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 4, 2020

Unconfirmed reports suggest the movie is being pulled and recut to remove the offensive clip before being re-released.

Of course they do, so I have no idea why this remained in.

What's interesting is that the subtitles don't match the English voice. The subtitles are ????? which is a Chinese idiom.

That also contributed to the controversy overall. https://t.co/j4rdyunOd0

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 4, 2020

Meanwhile, Monster Hunter: World is being review-bombed on Steam in response to the movie. The game suffered over 1000 negative reviews on 4th December, and so far today, 5th December, it's had over 500. Almost all mention the clip from the movie, but there's a lot of awful racism in there. It's a big old mess.

The Monster Hunter movie was set for a 4th December UK release but was delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It's now due out during the first quarter of 2021. I suspect when Monster Hunter finally launches in the west, it'll do so without this "joke".