I usually hate re-makes, but I was looking forward to seeing the new version of the 1984 movie Red Dawn. The original centered on how Americans in a small town repelled a Russia invasion. The new version was supposed to feature Chinese invaders bearing down on Michigan. But apparently because of concerns of how the movie would affect its business with China, the movie is being re-made to substitute North Koreans for Chinese.
A very good article in the Los Angeles Times reports that "the filmmakers now are digitally erasing Chinese flags and military symbols from "Red Dawn," substituting dialogue and altering the film to depict much of the invading force as being from North Korea, an isolated country where American media companies have no dollars at stake."
MGM may have saved some China business, but they're going to lose me. I'm not worried in the least about a North Korea invasion of the US. I think the chances of the Chinese crossing the Pacific are also ridiculously small (and I don't like fear-mongering against any country), but the thought plays into the collective American imagination, however warped, of a threatening China on the rise and on the march. North Korea scares Americans because it has nuclear weapons, and that doesn't fit with the premise of Red Dawn.
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