Mistake on the Poster of ‘Arrival’ Caused a Scandal in Hong Kong

A mistake made by the authors of the official poster for Arrival caused the outburst of anti-Chinese sentiments in Hong Kong where the citizens got angry with the creators of the movie for adding a Chinese landmark to the Hong Kong landscape, Variety writes.

The scandalous poster was released a week ago, on August 16: it depicts an alien ship hovering above Hong Kong. It also depicts Oriental Pearl Tower — a famous TV tower located in Shanghai.

The poster went viral among Hong Kong Internet users who have already left thousands of enraged comments for the movie creators.

The issue became political: because of the tension in relations between Hong Kong and China, many thought that the poster was disrespectful. One of the most popular hashtags used in the discussion around the poster was #hongkongisnotchina.

Horace Chin Wan-kan, one of the well-known Hong Kong politicians, known as ‘Godfather of localism’, said: “[The movie] has decent director Denis Villeneuve and actors Amy Adams [and] Jeremy Renner. However, everything is ruined by this improper poster.”

After several days, the creators of Arrival reacted to the criticism and removed the poster from all official accounts of the movie.