BOWLING FOR SEOUL

Fahrenheit 9/11 opens today in South Korea, reports the Chosun Ilbo:

Most of Fahrenheit 9/11's ticket buyers are young people like 25-year-old Lee Sang-min who says he's been waiting for weeks to see it. "It showed a lot of the things that are not or cannot be dealt with on TV and by other mass media outlets. It gives us a chance to see those aspects."

But even before opening day, there's been a great deal of interest in the movie. The progressive Democratic Labor Party held a special preview, turning up the heat on the government's plan to send some three thousand more soldiers to Iraq, which would make Korea the third largest foreign military presence in the Mideast country.

Earlier this month in a news conference in New York, Moore had himself urged Koreans to join the anti-troop deployment movement. It's still too early to tell if "Fahrenheit 9/11" will tip Korean sentiment against the planned troop deployment, but what does seem likely is that Koreans will get caught up in America's headache.

I don't think that F-911 will actually have any major impact on the November US elections. The US is too polarized and too large. The flick will only resonate with Moore's rather limited fan base and, despite the box-office gross, a few million viewers are really only a drop in a really big ocean. Most people, even Moore supporters, will just wait for the DVD.

Still, I'm more concerned about the impact overseas. Korea is a rather insulated country, as are Japan, China and most of Asia. There isn't much concern for international news here, and F-911 will probably be absorbed rather uncritically by its viewers. Among my anglospheric friends (from the US, Canada, UK and Oz) not even the most Socialist Bush-hater would call Moore a documentarian. The Koreans won't have such an objective view and I don't think most Asians or Europeans will either.

Partly, this is because anti-Americanism is more prevalent in Seoul and Paris. But I also think it's because non-English speakers have so little information about Moore. To my knowledge, there are no Korean - or even French or Spanish - websites that could match Michael Moore Hates America, http://moorelies.com/, or http://www.moorewatch.com/ . There should be.

It's not that important for the election - there are no campaign stops in Seoul – but in the longer term this will be damaging for America's reputation. As bad as the US press is for international news, most of the rest of the world is worse (the UK being one of the few exceptions). If there is no counter-argument presented, 'Moore's America' will be accepted as the 'real America.'

That is unfortunate - and I wish there were a way to easily counteract it. But, given the costs involved, I don't think there will be. Not until free translation software becomes reliable enough to allow for immediate posting in kan-ji, Thai or han-gul. Right now, the world will just get Moore without the counter argument.

Oh, as far as I know. F-911 hasn't opened in the Philippines yet. However, the man who has “urged Koreans to join the anti-troop deployment movement” has got a little help from his friends.