China Film Journal

Do films with titles like “Feathers of Dongtan” and “Sounds. Breaths” give you a tingle in your special area? If not, fret not, there’s still some time to develop that acquired taste which is promotional films for really-big-Chinese-events. “Vision Shanghai”, like “Vision Beijing,” is going to feature documentary films by famous directors, thought the names of those directors have yet to be released. However, Shanghai Film Group has announced its next Expo film, a full-length doc by Jia Zhangke. We’ve been hearing about this intermittently for awhile, and whatever our reservations about promo films, we’re still curious to see what Jia’s up to with this film.The article says that trailers are being shown on TV soon, but we haven’t seen anything new on the video-sharing sites.

From Blogcritics.org we find a post about Orlando Bloom taking the lead role in the upcoming Hong Kong Phooey live-action movie. Toonzone links to a Variety article reports that Bretter Ratner’s Rat Entertainment is going to produce this film. Kirsten Dunst is reportedly playing the lead female character, telephone operator Rosemary. The movie is based on a short-lived Hanna-Barbara Saturday morning cartoon. Blogcritics says that Johnny To is going to direct – and then proceeds to call To the “Jerry Bruckheimer of Hong Kong,” which we would find insulting if we were To. But who knows, maybe he’d take it as a compliment.

Supporters of Tang Wei, the Lust, Caution that was recently banned by SARFT, has become a bit of a cause celebre – Danwei translates an open letter to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao asking that she be allowed to work again.

Lastly, again from Variety, is news that some French films are going to screen in Shanghai as part of the fifth French Film Panorama： “Pics include “Asterix at the Olympic Games,” “Towards Zero,” “Hunting and Gathering,” “Dragon Hunters” and “Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure.” We were just in Paris and some of these movies are still being advertised and still showing in the theaters. So they’re newish movies, yes, but tend to fall on the schlocky side of the spectrum. Not really the most representative slice of French film perhaps, but in case you’re interested, this is happening from April 15-19, though we don’t know which four Shanghai cinemas they are screening at.Technorati Tags: tang wei, lust, caution, ban, censorship, China, SARFT, hong kong phooey, orlando bloom, johnnie to, cartoons, comics, jia zhangke, documentary, Expo, worldexpo, 2010

Director Ang Lee, perhaps frustrated and angered by the recent ban of Tang Wei and spate of criticism leveled against his movie, has reacted by publcily defending Tang Wei — as well a good director ought to, protege or not.

However, in so doing he made a statement that hasn’t gone over well in the blogosphere. He said that “not watching Lust, Caution would be shameful.”

Here is what the above article quotes Lee as saying:

　李安說：“戲中那些激情場面，是演技最精彩的部分。我教過無數演員，都沒有那麼高水準。這些是好私人的表演，是這部戲的重點，主導了整部電影，不去看才羞恥。” [emphasis mine]

The article then discusses Lee’s remarks in that typically specious avuncular “tsk, tsk” officialese tone that we all know so well, that patronizing tone mustered by those who will live to their last day without ever becoming aware of their own incorrigible mediocrity. The writer is the calm voice of reason, the artist is petulant and extreme. In a pluralistic society like China, everyone has different tastes and interests, no need to be saying what we should or shouldn’t watch, what is “shameful” and what is not. There’s no need to point out the doublespeak — in film and the arts, SARFT and their ilk reserve the final right to decide who’s on the pluralism party list and who gets bounced.

The article then claims that statemetns like Lee’s are sound-bytes that the attention-starved people in the movie biz do to get more publicity for themselves:

當前，影視界或藝術界的一些人，太急功近利或浮躁了。總喜歡發出一些“怪論”、“偏論”，或引起人們的注意，或顯示自己的與眾不同。其實，那不過是一種“很傻很天真很幼稚”的表現。

This is then criticized as being naive and immature. The author says that some artists (obviously meaning Ang Lee in this context) are so obsessed with “immediate profits and gains” that they have to make “strange and provocative statements” in order for that to happen. It seems highly ironic, the terms they use to describe this — “怪論” (strange arguments/statements) and “偏論” (biased/skewed/provocative arguments or statements) — because to us the best instance of such statements can be found by attending government press conferences, political meetings (Party Congresses), or maybe by bringing a mirror into wherever these writers work.

It’s not that we’re fans of Ang Lee’s movies, and even though he’s publicly pitted himself against the SARFT-Goliath, he’s no culture-hero. He is morally obliged, we think, to stand up and say something, but not everything he has said has been right, or even helpful. The issue of “shame” should never have come up in the first place, because that’s precisely how SARFT wants you to think about Lust, Caution. And they certainly don’t want you to notice the rhetorical sleight-of-hand that editorials like this one use to distort the issue, making it about Ang Lee’s big mouth instead of about the real issue — China’s puzzling lack of a film-ratings system and the government’s anachronistic role as the cultural nanny of the general population.

This hypocrisy is gloriously displayed on the last line: “李安應為自己的話道歉”，這是許多網友的呼聲，不知我們的李大導演可否注意到？是否懂得“不敬人者，人恒不敬之”的道理？Roughly translated this means that Ang Lee ought to apologize for his own statements, doesn’t he know that ‘he who does not respect others will never gain the respect of others.” When is China going to start respecting artists and filmmakers, and more importantly, the general population as adult, mature, consumers of cultural products? If the Chinese government is not going to respect its own cultural producers, why should anyone in the world who gives a shit about art and culture respect the Chinese government?

Technorati Tags: ang lee, lust, caution, china, media, 媒體, 中國, 色戒, 李安

Tang Wei (汤唯), the female star of Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, has been blacklisted from all mainland Chinese press. However, this doesn’t just coverher appearances in print media and TV commercials, but extends to the participation of her and other people involved in that movie in awards events, film festivals, etc. This means that you won’t catch her on the cover of Elle magazine again anytime soon.The Viagra seems to be working for the people at SARFT, since they’ve decided to reassert censorship guidelines in a March 7 statement:

In a statement titled “Reassertion of Censorship Guidelines” and dated March 7, SARFT said that, on Monday, it informed all major film and broadcast entities and governing bodies that it was renewing prohibitions on “lewd and pornographic content” and content that “show promiscuous acts, rape, prostitution, sexual intercourse, sexual perversity, masturbation and male/female sexual organs and other private parts.” However, the public notice, posted on SARFT’s Web site, did not specifically mention “Lust” or Tang.      

Of course, they did have some issues with Lust, Caution in particular, what with the way it glorified traitors and maligned an entire nation and race of people. Here are some of the charges, in Chinese:

电影上映后，负面批评不少，认为恶搞抗日史实，亵渎抗日先烈，宣扬汉奸，损害国家荣誉，践踏民族尊严，危害社会公德，颠倒真、善、美与假、恶、丑，混淆了正义与非正义的基本性质；看完电影，遭受巨大精神痛苦，民族自豪感、民族自尊感遭受严重挫伤。      

In addition to the usual malarkey about the distortion of history, the glorification of traitors, and the trampling of national dignity, there’s also this bit about how “after watching this film” the (indoctrinated) audience would “feel great spiritual pain”. The Hollywood Reporter article mentions that Tang’s Ponds cream contract, worth a pretty penny, will be adversely affected.Technorati Tags: china, chinese, SARFT, cinema, film, Tang wei, lust caution, anglee, ang lee, ban, censorship, blacklist, actors, actress, movie