The movie Arrival, which hits theaters in November, features spacecraft landing in various parts of the world, including Hong Kong. Yet a poster for the film depicting this city's skyline has something that doesn't belong there (aside from a UFO, that is).
Oriental Pearl Tower — that bulbous building jutting out on the right — is actually located in Shanghai.
Hong Kong's residents were especially perturbed because their government and China's don't exactly have the best relationship, according to Mashable.
People angry at @arrivalmovie mixing HK and Shanghai #HongKongisnotchina pic.twitter.com/Hya0SAkyZT
— Poppie (@jesuispoppie) August 18, 2016
People were also just offended by the way the poster managed to conflate two entirely different places. As one Twitter user aptly pointed out, it's like having the Statue of Liberty next to the Hollywood sign.
#HongKongIsNotChina #ArrivalMovie Here, I made a new poster for you :p pic.twitter.com/teuf2Pdpi8
— Sam Luk (@Sam_HL_Luk) August 19, 2016
Arrival issued a public apology on its Facebook page claiming it's not responsible for the mishap.
We hope the movie can recover from this, because the sci-fi short story it's based on — "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang — is truly enrapturing. It brings up some fascinating questions about space and time that'll hopefully also play out in the movie.
It does not, however, involve warping space and time to transpose Hong Kong and Shanghai. Science fiction may not have to reflect reality, but this seems like a pretty major and gratuitous departure from it.
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