Despite enjoying great success at the box office, the Taiwanese gangster movie Monga (艋舺) yesterday drew criticism from Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基), who said the film was conveying a negative message to young viewers and had a “flawed” script.
“The movie does not include any police characters. It is as if we were not a nation of law,” Wu told reporters on his way to the legislature yesterday afternoon. “Students [in the movie] resort to violence to solve problems, which is very misleading for our students.”
Wu said the movie, which depicts the story of five high school students who are tired of being bullied and join a gang, also failed to feature any help extended from teachers to the troubled teenagers, while showing that the characters resolve issues through vilolence.
“The script is flawed because, from beginning to the end, no teachers or policemen ever appear,” Wu said, adding that it did not reflect reality.
Wu said students who are bullied on campus should seek help from teachers or guidance counselors at school rather than turn to gangsters outside school to seek revenge through fighting and killing.
“However, I encourage teachers and guidance counselors to see the movie to understand the feelings and thinking of students who are frustrated in their studies and bullied by their peers,” he said.
The film, directed by Doze Niu (鈕承澤), has made more than NT$250 million (US$7.82 million) since its release last month.
Estimates show that the film has lost about NT$80 million as a result of piracy.
The National Police Administration’s Intellectual Property Rights team yesterday pledged to crack down on pirated copies of the movie.
Lieutenant Vick Liao (廖高江), head of the team, said police have investigated potential sites such as local night markets where pirated copies of the movie could be sold.
As of last Thursday, the team had uncovered 33 cases of piracy, totaling 535 illegal DVDs of the movie.
Officers also discovered a total of 168 Web sites where illegal downloads of the movie were sold, Liao said, adding that 50 of them had immediately shut down their sites after they received citations from police. Officers are still investigating the remaining Web sites, Liao said.
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