How This Comedy Legend Almost Got Cancelled (Stephen Chow)

Is legendary comedian Stephen Chow about to get cancelled over this Instagram post or is it just a innocent translation mishap? You know the most important criteria that you must meet for applying for my movie is just don't be ugly okay. Andrew this caused a little bit of a internet dust up as silly as it was we're talking about Stephen Chow Andrew the legendary comedic director and actor from Hong Kong he did you know Shaolin soccer kung fu hustle he's doing a women's version of Shaolin soccer but his casting call both in Chinese and English caused a little controversy. Yeah so he made an Instagram post on his personal Instagram and in Cantonese which is written a little bit differently than Mandarin in Chinese even. It has one message and then it has a direct translation at the bottom but the translation is what's getting him in a little bit of trouble right now so please we're going to go to the comments section uh hit that like button check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys from Silly Series we're talking about it all. I guess this is a little bit more silly but uh some people are asking uh some people are are mad and saying oh Stephen Chow is is misogynistic for this this goes along with the image or oh he's too old school and some people are like oh it's a translation issue. And then other people were like saying why are we holding Asia to the same PC woke standards that we hold the western world and there's a whole argument of uh is being woke in general okay or is it okay for the west and it's just not applicable to the east should every culture be allowed to run their system however they want to run it make sure you like subscribe turn on your notifications Andrew why don't you go ahead and read the translation of the post I mean the first sentence in Chinese and Cantonese says which is just like uh yeah today I have a wish I can't really read the rest but um it got translated differently. Uh thank you for that brief translation David uh but yeah so here's what he posted in his Instagram post right below the Chinese it goes you know I have one wish today on my birthday to spend a good time with so many pretty girls young beautiful smart curvy athletic all countries are welcome the more the better let's people mountain people see just don't be ugly for those who are qualified please send recent photos to blah blah blah um photoshop photos will never work it will be condemned by us and the united nation not the united nations calling the UN on any girls all right so uh before we get in the comment section I have some quick thoughts I'm gonna leave with you guys uh first of all uh I think in Cantonese it reads differently right obviously like langlois is like a common term that everybody's they call us langzai at the at the restaurant whether you're good looking or not you're I mean I feel like if they do think you're good looking they say it a little differently but yeah essentially they it's just a term for like young man young woman but anyways I think the part to me that is a little bit triggering to people I guess is the you know don't apply unless you are elegant or good looking he doesn't really use the word ugly in Cantonese but it's like elegant good looking uh fit right but he translated it as ugly yeah he doesn't use the word which is like the slang for right would be like the more harsh actual term for ugly now here's my thing I just think as a Hong Konger who does speak some English if he did not mean for this to be funny and go viral then they need to do a better job of translating but do you think they speak English in Hong Kong but do you think he was trying to be funny because he's like uh which is just like I need people as big as the mountain as wide as the sea to apply he's like he's like people see don't be ugly hey look at that I made a rhyme I'm like rapping yeah the little United Nations line at the end kind of like made me laugh so I think I don't know is this a ploy to just be funny and have this post go viral and he's going to take the heat along with it let's get in the comment section David and see what other people are saying someone said she's Asian humor or not this is cringe in this day and age his comments about casting need a pc checkup oh this is his birthday wishes to spend time with pretty girls yikes some people were mad and offended right because he talks a lot about female beauty he does sort of stress it I think obviously this is probably still true in Hollywood but people in the west they don't want to say it yeah I mean I would say one trope in his movies that's very common is like he has a good looking actress but he does makeup to make them look uglier this is kind of a gag that you see on a lot like a lot of YouTube channels it's kind of like younger type of comedy I guess you would say like maybe advanced slapstick or like a kind of like a classic bait and switch like from the 1960s type calm and or do old Asian uncles that are like over the age of 50 or 60 years old should people even expect them to be with the 2023 like you know times or the tone or the narrative or the I think you'd have to look at their track record and reputation overall but also I do think it's funny that a Asian casting post is getting judged by the western woke world but it is what it is because it was on Instagram and he did use English so he gave the translation in English for everybody to see if these girls that are mad watch the god of cookery or the god of gamblers then they can criticize him um somebody said uh what the f that's so creepy for him to abuse power like that to meet pretty girls for young women who want to get into the entertainment industry who will trial for the movie this can negatively affect their self-esteem especially if they're rejected because they didn't meet child standards this is this this is a disgusting man looking to fulfill a harem fantasy that he's for a lack of better term for too old for this man is hams up low I learned that from my Cantonese friend which is a wet salty pervert man yeah uh I would say definitely the the English translation does sound a little bit creepy and is it a little hums up yeah but maybe I don't know if that's the character he was in when he made the post like I'm just saying it's Stephen Chow but of course I wouldn't have wrote the post that way right I wouldn't somebody said he's the Scorsese of Chinese comedy and Chinese culture is just not overly woke like us I'm sure if he's making a PSA like that he's not just trying to sleep with girls he's trying to make a comedic masterpiece that will last for another 20 years you know what David I had this theory that I think that this casting call is actually more for extras because this is what you would do for x if you need to fill up the background with pretty girls you'd be like yeah okay so I need like a number of good fit pretty girls in the background but I have my main cast already and they are a group of very talented and funny women no matter how they look yeah I think it's a way to build anticipation for a movie as well sort of like when CRA had an open casting call and I think they got like 170,000 submissions or something like that and if you apply for a movie when it comes out you're not gonna watch it that's a good point um somebody said bruh he's just speaking the truth the entertainment industry is full of attractive people and someone said yeah that might be true but you know there are other people from various backgrounds of physical features too and someone's like I just can't take the wokeness people are policing the actors and actresses being good looking now no I mean there it is true that I think in the western media they're not only looking for beautiful faces anymore like nowadays I do think it more in Hollywood at least in America it does depend a little bit more on talent and what characters you're bringing you're saying there's less Baywatchness from back in the day because Baywatch was a show that was famous for just getting 10 out of 10 people who could not act it's less blatantly about good looks now and I think the Hong Kong industry is a although this could have been a funny post but yeah I mean you know it is show business so if you can still apply I think any type of woman should still apply someone said uh if you guys really speak Cantonese you know that nobody in the Chinese world was worried about whether this was problematic or not man or woman right I think again it reads differently in Cantonese now what should get them cancelled is if some unattractive women do apply and then they reply back in the email saying oh man you are not good looking did you read the original post that you are not even following basic initial criteria how successful will you be in life if you cannot follow the instructions listen that should get them cancelled 100 somebody said Stephen Chow is a well-known womanizer and has ties to the triads in Hong Kong man I feel like every big actor in Hong Kong man well to be honest the entire entertainment industry in Hong Kong is still heavily like interfacing with like you know I don't want to like rain on people's parades I'm not saying Michelle Yeoh is a womanizer but I'm saying she has come in contact with probably people of the industry and you know there's all different types of people out there right every world is run by somebody in the background I don't know if that's a big knock somebody said oh man here comes the entitled western feminist snowflakes trying to apply this to a eastern director who is by the way just directing movies in Chinese somebody else said oh you're a snowflake triggered by these snowflakes that makes you even a bigger snowflake and this just went back and forth Andrew how can a casting call in the Chinese language just turn into woke versus anti-woke in 2023 you're saying that you are surprised that a Cantonese casting call turned into a political debate in America right about two competing American political factions right but you know what and in Asia they don't fight about this as much like woke versus unwoke I think it is a discussion but it's really not that big of a deal right it's not that heated of an argument yeah yeah on both sides almost like the volander it's more like a friendly volley like okay you hit the ball to me I'm going to hit the ball back but you know in America it's like ah you know you know why man Asia's different man I think in Hong Kong they're just like yeah you know you know you just don't kill anybody don't sexually assault anybody and you know just be nice to people and let people live and then oh no we don't care no let them eat some yummy food yeah everybody just eat yummy food together and just don't do bad things and who cares yeah nobody talk to each other I'm not saying it's right or wrong you know obviously I do think Asia is behind in progressive you know yeah because they just don't want to talk about they just don't it's just not as big of a um anyway moving on Andrew I guess what are your final takeaways Andrew is it interesting to see Stephen Chow still relevant after 20 30 40 years you know but you know he's keeping up with the times I'll tell you this man he's not getting canceled and he's not in hot water by the HK industry but but I do think this does drum up some anticipation for the movie also you know the women who are attractive and will apply I don't think that this is going to deter them I don't think that he is necessarily like a horrible guy I mean he's worked in the industry that long but he probably is old school right yeah he's probably old school I believe you I believe it you know and old school people anybody he's 61 years old so anybody of that age is definitely going to say this thing that doesn't excuse him and you can be mad but also just so you know you being mad and leaving this comment doesn't do anything that movie's coming out and a bunch of people are gonna watch it and you'll see if it's problematic or not what do you think about the people getting mad that he explicitly said he's looking for really attractive athletic like curvy women who sort of fit that you know I guess like hot world cup player stereotype well they look like they could play sports again every single music video ever made literally every single music video ever made get mad at Drake right for everybody 50 Drake videos every artist you know um but I think it was like the jokey harsh mean tone that it was in you know so again I wouldn't have made this post uh but I'm also not Stephen Chow yeah I mean you know even in Hollywood today Andrew they would never say it Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill they're still paired up with like some baddies whereas like it seems like there's like a pretty big gap between yeah I mean I would say I watched that movie Joyride uh with the with all the Asian female cast and let's just say there's some really good looking dudes in that movie right so they're kind of doing the girl possibly a flip on the bro movie the hangover movie anyways you guys let us know in the comments down below is this is it fair to judge his post because he did provide his English translation it's posted by him uh so should it should you judge him or is this like trying to judge like international posts is it kind of like uh you know countries don't want to extradite so it's like you're extraditing a a post to like analyze it if it's woke or not I don't know I think that there's so many different ways that you can look at that look at this you can go by the standards of the youth in the west you can go by the generals overall like median age standard in the west you could say the east should stay the east or you should say nope this is what we're doing we're shifting as a globe now in 2023 and everybody has a different perspective Andrew and maybe that's why there's so much arguing online all right guys we're gonna close it up there let us know in the comments down below what you think and until next time we out peace