EXPOSED: In a SHOCKING move, the Asian Film Awards Academy is pushing forward with a glamorous, star-powered event mere months after a horrific fire claimed over 150 lives in Hong Kong. While the city mourns, the elite film institution is hosting lavish masterclasses with “Squid Game” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk and Chinese icon Zhang Ziyi, PROVING that the show must go on—no matter the human cost. Critics are SLAMMING the event as a tone-deaf spectacle of vanity, asking: HAVE THEY NO SHAME?
The Academy SUSPENDED its competitive awards, but this is no somber memorial. It’s a calculated REBRAND, using tragedy as a backdrop for self-congratulatory panels funded by government-backed agencies. This isn’t “dignified minimalism”; it’s a DISTURBING display of cultural gatekeepers prioritizing global clout and networking over genuine respect for the dead. The message is clear: in the new world order, art and commerce are SACRED, but public grief is an inconvenient pause.
The masterclasses themselves are a study in contradiction. Hwang Dong-hyuk will dissect “Squid Game,” a brutal satire of capitalist exploitation, AT AN EVENT bankrolled by state and corporate funds. Jia Zhangke, famed for chronicling China’s dispossessed, will speak while the ceremony IGNORES the very local tragedy that reflects his films’ themes. This isn’t celebration; it’s a HARROWING lesson in how power co-opts dissent into content.
As they anoint “Youth Ambassadors” to showcase “new energy,” one must question what future they’re building. A future where art is a polished commodity, detached from the suffering on its doorstep. The velvet rope is up, the cameras are rolling, and the memory of the dead has been quietly edited out of the final cut. This is the true face of modern culture: a beautiful, empty shell, smiling over a grave.
Author: Kayitsi.com
