MCLC: Django Unchained pulled from theaters

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Django Unchained pulled from theaters
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Source: NYT (4/11/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/business/media/django-unchained-pulled-fr
om-chinas-theaters.html

‘Django Unchained’ Pulled From China’s Theaters
By GERRY MULLANY

HONG KONG — The U.S. film ‘'Django Unchained'’ was abruptly pulled from
theaters in China on its opening day Thursday, a surprising move that came
after some scenes were reported to have been edited to conform to the
wishes of Chinese censors.

No reason was given for the decision to suspend the film’s opening.
Workers at Beijing theaters said the film had been pulled because of
unspecified technical problems with the movie.

The film was to have made its debut Thursday after weeks of heavy
promotion in China. News reports have said that some of the film’s graphic
violence was edited to make it acceptable to state censors, including
altering the color of fake blood in violent scenes and limiting how far
the blood splattered.

Such revisions are becoming increasingly common before U.S. films are
shown in China, with U.S. filmmakers adhering to the demands of Chinese
censors as they seek to tap into the country’s lucrative market of
filmgoers. China is the second-largest movie market in the world, behind
the United States.

‘'Django Unchained'’ won two Oscars in February, including one for best
original screenplay, which went to the film’s director, Quentin Tarantino.
The movie focuses on a slave named Django and a bounty hunter who pursue a
particularly brutal slave owner.

Before the film’s planned opening, the Chinese media quoted a Sony
Pictures official who described the changes made to appease censors and
suggested that Mr. Tarantino had played a role in the changes.

‘‘What we call bloodshed and violence is just a means of serving the
purpose of the film, and these slight adjustments will not affect the
basic quality of the film — such as tuning the blood to a darker color, or
lowering the height of the splatter of blood,’’ Zhang Miao, director of
Sony Pictures’ Chinese branch, was quoted as saying to Southern Metropolis
Daily. ‘‘Quentin knew how to adjust that, and it’s necessary that he is
the one to do it. You can give him suggestions, but it must be him.'’

Mr. Tarantino, whose films are known for their no-holds-barred depictions
of gory violence, has not commented on reports that he toned the film down
for Chinese censors.

As U.S. moviemakers have tried to conform to the demands of Chinese
censors, they have increasingly been willing to bend over backward in
their efforts, even allowing government officials onto movie sets to watch
the filming, as was the case with Disney and Marvel’s ‘'Iron Man 3.'’

At one Bejing movie theater, an employee said “Django Unchained” was shown
after midnight Thursday to about 150 people. Another worker said the movie
was then ordered taken down later for technical reasons, adding, “there’s
probably something in the film that’s not up to standard.”

China does not have a movie ratings system like those in the United States
or Europe that would give viewers a chance to judge in advance whether a
film is too violent for children or teenagers. It relies instead on the
brute force of censorship: movies and television shows either have scenes
excised or are banned entirely.

The absence of a ratings system “means the movies on screen need to be
suitable for kids – that issue has been debated for years,” said Henry
Siling Li, a media specialist at the China Executive Leadership Academy of
Pudong, an elite school in the Shanghai area for training rising stars in
the Chinese Communist Party.

“We have to remove nudity and violence from movies” as long as there is
the possibility that children will be in a cinema when a movie is shown,
he said.

Mr. Li added that he did not know what the difficulty might have been with
“Django Unchained,” but expressed surprise that it had been pulled at the
last moment because it had been the subject of a saturation advertising
campaign that usually would not be conducted if a movie’s future were in
doubt.

Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong, and Amy Quin and
Sue-Lin Wong contributed from Beijing.