China Censors Mummy 3
Posted by Rodneyon 14. 07. 2008in News Chat
It appears The Mummy 3 has offended the sensibilities of China’s censors, we get wind of this affront from our friends at cinematical:
When it comes to Hollywood movies, Chinese censors have always been a little strict. Case in point: The State Administration for Radio, Film and Television tells Variety that the upcoming release of The Mummy 3 Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is still pending until Universal makes unspecified changes to the flick. The censors didn’t give any details about what would have to be cut from the film, but speculation has it that the source of the problem is “usually themes involving ghosts are taboo in China”.
Universal already made some concessions to the Chinese government in exchange for permission to shoot on location. According to Variety Universal was urged to make the film, “less political and more focused on fantasy than real history.” A flack for Universal has already released a statement saying, “Universal does not anticipate any obstacles to clearing the film for China and looks forward to releasing “The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor” in the country where it was set and shot.”
From the above news blurb it’s impossible to really know what problems the Chinese censors have with the film. I am going to guess that only those behind the oaken doors at Universal and the censors themselves in China know the real answers. For all we know however, the ghost issue may be true.
As someone who opposes censorship, I feel for the Chinese. The government should have no place in determining what’s appropriate for its citizens to watch. It’s important to pick you battles however, and I don’t foresee many riots happening over a few deleted scenes from The Mummy 3.
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China, this country of freedom!
I don’t understand the chinese government. With the olimpic games focusing all their activity they continue cutting the liberties of their people.
Not that I want to embrace the Chinese government on what they do, nor do I want to upset the you guys in the US.
But. I mean, what if the Chinese did a film about… oh, say Washington, Lincoln and Nixon being a bunch of villains or monsters or… you know, something that the Chinese people would find amusing but you didn’t… Do you really think that would be shown in america? Probably not.
My guess is that since the portrayal of a human skeleton is banned in China, government officials are requesting that the scenes featuring the skeleton army be removed or drastically altered. Those familiar with the game Magic: The Gathering may know that any illustrations featuring human skeletons are altered or even re-illustrated for Chinese printings. Some of these images are only slightly altered so perhaps this won’t be a big deal to the producers of The Mummy.
“But. I mean, what if the Chinese did a film about… oh, say Washington, Lincoln and Nixon being a bunch of villains or monsters or… you know, something that the Chinese people would find amusing but you didn’t… Do you really think that would be shown in america? Probably not.”
Probably not is right, but not for the reasons you think of. How many Chinese films get a wide release in America? None that I can think of. There are remakes that do, or maybe a couple of HUGE Chinese movies MAY get shown in a thousand theaters for two days or something, but that’s it.
And there have been MANY movies come out of Asia that has shown America in a poor light, and guess what? Americans still love them.
China walks with a limp, because they have freedom shoved so far up their tight ass it hurts.
I’m surprised they even have movie theaters.
I for one will not watch any parts of the olympic games.
China can bite my ass!
I bet their biggest problem is that the villain is Chinese and they want them to change it. China even felt shame that Kung Fu Panda was making so much money in their country because it wasn’t created by the Chinese.
That’s weird. China has no problem with ghosts in films. China has a rich history of pretty good ghost stories. The problem is that the censors are inconsistant with what they think is proper for their citizens. That and they seem to have a problem with seeing Jet Li as a villain.
To you guys who talk about China being a place that’s against freedom: People forget how privileged most of us are. We can’t judge all other governments by our standards. China is changing and changing too fast, just so that the government can change their international image. The citizens are having problems adjusting to the changes towards more and more freedom. As a result the country’s growing more and more chaotic. It’s going to take at least a decade to put things right. A lot of people who live in privileged countries don’t seem to see these problems. They just wonder why other people can’t live the way they live.
yeah why the fuck did they want to make a mummy movie in china anyways? NOT EVERYTHING IS FROM CHINA!
well hopefully our athletes dont have to put up with much of this shit while we kick everyone elses ass in the olimpics. get the gold and come back and pray to god the next ones take place in like california or something…
cant china just fucking NOT do this?
haha!…jesus…..ghosts….
wow, at least one person on this blog can see things with more perspectives and an open mind. kudos, chrisp.
they have a problem with seeing lee as a villain? i can name 5 movies in which he was a villain!
you dont see US sensuring spiderman because william dafoe was a bad guy
so rules THAT one out
and no one sayd china is against freedom- if they were they wouldnt be in a civil war (and they are btw for those who might argue about this theres fucking guerillas all over that country)
so yes theyre fighting for their freedom just like we fought for ours like 200 years ago. which is why its unwise to have the olimpics there. maybe waiting a couple of years to make anything bigger then a block party would be a smart idea.
First of all, to get it out of the way, I am Chinese. I live in Hong Kong, and I travel to China often.
That being said, CHINA does have its head far up its ass. However, assuming you don’t care if the studio makes money, its not that bad for the audience.
First of all, not alot of people in China watch movies in the theaters anyways. Seriously. The average wage in China is less then USD400.00, and a movie ticket costs the same as American theaters. You’d think with such a big population, even if 1% of the population go see this they’d be rich.
However, 80% of the pop.are uber poor anyways, so they’ll probably buy the bootleg dvd that will come out 3 day s after the movie starts showing in the US. Or the clearer version 2 weeks later.
The mummy 3 is going to suck balls.
Let The Mummy 3 be a rallying call for democracy in China!
:( Damn foolish China! :(
Turns out this story was false:
http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=6986
” China’s Mummy Ban Lifted
Source:ShockTillYouDrop.com, Variety
July 16, 2008
Ya’ll can breathe a sigh of relief, folks. China has given the “okay” to play The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor after a lil’ drama. Last Friday, Variety reported Chinese censors were requesting the studio make unspecified cuts to Rob Cohen’s film (details).
ShockTillYouDrop.com spoke to Cohen yesterday to inform us this was untrue (of course) and Universal’s overseas distributor, Edko Films, had already received a certificate to play the film in China. “We called Variety to clear this up, but they never took down the story,” Cohen said.”
***
One of the unreleased reason for the chinese government banning mummy3 is because of the theme and material portrayed within the film. This is taken out of a chinese website submitted by an anonymous individual, and is supported by many.
First of all, the film made the Chinese people look like puppets to be used by the Americans, summoned to do the bidding. Nothing again brendan fraser of course.
Secondly, the dragon is an emperial symbol in China which signifies wealth and luck, not to mention power. In the film Jet Li turns into the Western version of a tri-head dragon with wings. How does that even fit into the character of a legendary Chinese Emperor?
I cant exactly remember the director’s and the script writers names….are they Americans or Ameri-cunts?
It apply to all the countries, Malaysia, US, Thai also ban certain movie from playing.. That Life
350622 beers on the wall. sck was here