Man Punches Kid for Talking During Movie

Posted by on May 25th, 2012   Filed under: Industry News
Source: King 5 News

Lately it seems like we’ve been hearing about more and more incidents of movie theatre rage, which probably isn’t a huge surprise to anyone who has been to a movie theatre lately. With all the potential annoyances and the general lack of respect among average moviegoers, the number of things that could set somebody off are progressively increasing. Last month in Kent, Washington, a 21-year-old man took matters into his own hands while he was watching a screening of James Cameron’s Titanic in 3D with his girlfriend. A group of young kids behind them were being loud and throwing popcorn, and after refusing to stop, he hit one of the kids in the face with a closed fist. The punch knocked out a tooth and left the kid with a bloody nose. Did I mention that the kid was just 10 years old?

Yong Hyun Kim, 21, has since been charged with second degree assault after the incident and could now face jail time. He claims that he had no idea that the person he punched was a 10-year-old kid and that he actually thought it was an adult. I don’t know if I entirely buy that, but he also said that the kids were running back and forth in the aisle and hitting him with their arms. If that is true, they might have had it coming after all.

I think most people would agree that Kim took things too far, but still, anyone who has encountered a similar situation has definitely fantasized about doing exactly what he did. Either way, the kid will now probably think twice the next time he is tempted to act up at a movie. What do you think, is Yong Hyun Kim an unsung hero or did he cross the line? Could this situation have been avoided?



  • Steve

    I was surprised to find out this wasn’t Jay’s doing.

  • Bob

    Finally, something that Jay and Reed can unite on!

  • Speaking of asshole customers, I manage a Regal, and we got an e-mail from one of the other theaters about a person that got upset and managed to get himself arrested when he could have just been a fucking adult about the situation.

    You see, every day, we have films that are scheduled to be Open Captioned for the deaf and hearing impaired, meaning that the film will be shown with subtitles on the screen. It’s only one movie at a time, it’s only for 1 or 2 showtimes out of the day, and it changes every few days. If no one needs it, we can usually leave them off, as the movies that are scheduled that way are either older and on their way out and aren’t being seen by ANYone, or they’re films that have multiple prints, meaning that another regular show would be starting shortly. We get people that are fine with it, people that don’t like the idea but understand the situation and go with it anyway, and then we have people that are FURIOUS that they would have to look at words in a non-academic setting.

    This must have been one of those last guys, because after being told that the show he wanted to go to would have open captions (there actually WERE some deaf customers already in attendance that needed them), he verbally assaulted the box office employee and then stormed out, but not before pulling a fire alarm on the way out. What a fucking idiot. He could have gone to a later showing or he could have checked the showtimes before even heading out (we personally get blamed allllll the time when people show up and they’re late for everything), but instead he gets himself arrested. I hope he had loved ones that got hit by the firetruck on the way there, or that one of his kids goes deaf or something.

  • Kasper

    Nice one, that should teach that stupid kid some manners. Mental high-five.

  • Wait, what the hell’s a group of 10-year-old kids doing in Titanic anyway? Kids don’t want to watch Titanic, and parents definitely don’t want want to pay the extra money for them to have to see it in 3D.

    “He claims that he had no idea that the person he punched was a 10-year-old kid and that he actually thought it was an adult.”

    I wonder if that excuse has ever worked? Guy sounds like a fucking idiot anyway. The important question though is this: Was the girlfriend impressed?

  • Dan

    Thump that little fucker again, then track down his parents and thump them on their skulls. I’m not for violence, but some people just don’t get it until you invoke harm upon their stupidity.

  • Derek McFarland

    HAHAHAHA………..AAAHHHAHAHAHA!!!

  • Mike H

    I think that this is why I rarely go to the theatres anymore, the unnecessary disturbances. The talking, the texting, the throwing of drinks/food; unless the theatres owners become more strict and actually removing people for being annoying or loud, there will be more incidents like this. They should have an attendant in the movie at all times, I mean what else are they doing?

  • Agreeing with #1, for one gloriously horrifying second, I thought this might be Jay finally losing it completely and randomly punching children at the cinema. That would be terrible. And hilarious.

  • Captain N

    Good. Glad some little shit got what was coming to him.

    About 10 years ago I went to a movie with my dad, and the theater was relatively packed. At the very top were a group of younger kids, probably 13ish, throwing candy and popcorn. Well, they managed to hit some really big dude at the front and he was pissed. He stomped all the way to the top, started smacking each and every one of them, forced them to apologize, and just sat down like nothing happened. The kids sat in the back crying for the rest of the movie, in front of their little girlfriends they had brought no less.

    The best part was that the guy never faced any consequences for it. Just walked out of the theater, no security. Nothing.

  • patrik

    Right on.

  • Steven

    I try to pretty much avoid the larger chain theaters like Edwards, Regal and AMC when I want to enjoy a good movie going experience. It’s difficult to check out something like Avengers and not have some kid or drunk man-child interrupt the movie. I found out about Arclight cinemas and they have a much nicer place and don’t have nearly as many annoying people as other theaters. It has reserve seating and way cushier spacious seats which helps for those 2 1/2 hour long movies. The catch is that it’s more expensive but I think it’s because the place tries to cater to movie goers who are looking for refuge from the crap atmosphere of most theaters.

  • kyri

    Any information on how old the kid was?

    class judgment : public opinion {
    bool judgment();
    };

    bool judgment::decision(){
    if(kid<=8){return Jail;}else{return Hero;}
    }

  • kyri

    compile error : bool decision not declared properly?

  • Dave

    Good pic.

  • James

    #10

    Good to see that child assault, along with cinema brawling gets your “thumbs up”. Rock on…

  • Mrespony

    First off, getting violent because someone interrupted your movie going experience is totally out of proportion. I hope he gets prosecuted and sued by the kid’s parents. Talk about being stupid, punching a kid? “The kids will probably think twice”!?! So you think a violent response to kids being rambunctious is how to teach them to behave? The proper response is to leave and give the theater manager hell, get your money back and then some. Adults should know better than to expect a kid to act like anything other than a child, especially since most adults still act like children themselves.

  • I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, sometimes disturbing behavior is not always bad. When I saw The Aviator an old guy came in and it must have been the first film he had been to in 30 years. Very quickly it became apparent he was reliving his memories of following a young Howard Hughes. He could not help talking to the screen. It was like watching a film in 5D!

    People that expect perfect silence, or other extreme personal rules, while watching a film in a public setting need to chill. I say bring back the cinema from the Italy villages of Cinema Paradiso! Spit and beat-off at will!!!

    (seriously, shut the f*ck up kids)

  • Ovenball

    It depresses me greatly the consistency with which you can’t take 50 people, put them in a room with 150 seats, ask them to watch something for 2 hours, and have everything go problem free.

    You can’t put people in a room together without someone kicking a chair, being obnoxious, or some kind of fight breaking out.

    What does that say about us?

  • Kamen Liew

    I understand the frustration, but punching a kid is totally uncalled for. That kid’s gonna have some scars for life.

    Why couldn’t he have just yelled at them or get an usherer to deal with the problem? He deserves to go to jail.

  • Hugo Van Nor

    1. He should have not punched the kid
    2. Where are the parents?
    3. Why are you bringing a 10 yro to see Titanic
    4. People are morons
    5. Start tazing people to teach lessons

  • @19 It says nothing about us.

    It says everything about how many sociopaths of varying degrees and ages there are in a random sampling of society.

    I’d argue that most normal people would want to go to a theater and watch a movie and be respectful of other people’s desires to do the same. It’s generally the ones who lack empathy who end up being disruptive assholes.

    Sadly, there’s little that can be done about this that isn’t already being done. The best you can do is just deal with it. If you’re Jay, that probably means calling them fucking cocksuckers. That works too.

  • Mrespony

    Secondly, there are people out there who just shouldn’t have kids and unfortunately these dickheads live among us. When the Dawn of the Dead remake came out they had one of those radio-sponsored sneaks. There were parents with small children, elementary school age, in line waiting for this thing simply because it was free. The promoters of the sneak brought them release forms to sign and told them that this was an extremely frightening movie (most likely in an attempt to arouse some minimal brain function so they would NOT take their kids to see it). They signed the forms.

  • Rick

    is it just me or am I the only one who sees nothing wrong with punching a 10 year old ginger like the display pic for the thread pictures? Gingers don’t have any souls anyway, whats wrong with knocking him around a little bit because the little fucker cant be quiet durring a movie.

  • LUDY

    Sounds like the 10 yr old got what he deserved.

  • Matthew

    @16 Oh please, get off your high-horse – that little bastard had it coming. I’d like to see you sitting calmly and smiling inanely while some obnoxious little turd disrupts a movie you’ve paid good money to see. Ushers and managers aren’t going to do squat. You think a brat like that’s going to pay any attention to ‘authority’ figures? The fuss of getting managers involved is just going to add to its amusement. Kid’s like that need a lesson they’re not going to forget anytime soon, and a good wallop is the perfect tutor. The only thing Yong should get is a medal for doing his bit towards making the movie-going experience just a little bit more pleasant for everyone.

  • Johnny Creed

    Hero. I hope he wasn’t jailed. Punch all those little (and sometimes big) disrespectful shits.

  • Gerry

    That’s taking things a bit far Jay. Calling him a cocksucker would have sufficed.