‘Licorice Pizza’ Opens Wide, Asian Racism & Pedo Criticism Resurfaces

PT AndersonHis latest movie, “Licorice Pizza,” is releasing to audiences this weekend — and with it, there are uncomfortable themes of racism and potential pedophilia.

The esteemed director’s latest show was widely released on Saturday – that’s after a multi-week run in highly eclectic theaters across Los Angeles and elsewhere – and now people can catch up on him for Christmas… viewers echoed, too.

The film seems to be problematic, not just because of its premise about a 25-year-old woman in a cat-and-mouse love dance with a 15-year-old boy, awkward — the fact that there is an outright mockery of Asian culture, filmed twice at length.

First…the strange relationship. The movie is about a teenager, Gary, who falls head over heels in love with a girl who is 10 years older than him, Alana, who then go back and forth to follow each other amid a lot of adventures…all with the backdrop of San Fernando Valley in the seventies.

At one point, she flashed her breasts at him…and in the end, it’s clear that they meet as a couple. People on the internet are saying that the age gap is completely inappropriate – and that if the shoe is on the other foot (a teenage male and female), it probably won’t fly in 2021.

Perhaps totally bad is the fact that the owner of a white restaurant in the movie – he played it John Michael Higgins He identifies two different wives to him, which are Japanese and are similar. In both scenes, he spoke to them in a Japanese caricatured accent… which many people found offensive and unnecessary to the story. In fact, it smells blatantly racist.

The recent criticism has become very loud, particularly among those affiliated with MANAA – the Asian American Media Action Network. They wrote an open letter to the Academy and other governing bodies during this award season, requesting that the “LP” be discarded.