Django Unchained has officially been pulled out of every mainland Chinese theater.
We first reported earlier today that authorities abruptly shut down the movie’s Beijing premiere, but at least those in attendance at the Sanlitun cineplex got to see one minute of Quentin Tarantino’s revenge flick. Elsewhere in China, the movie never made it to the screen, according to AP.
The rare suspension order by importer China Film Group Corporation was confirmed by theater employees throughout China, and has led to speculation that the Hollywood film could have run afoul of Chinese censors despite weeks of promotion in the country.
…”Django Unchained” reportedly cut some violent scenes and had already been cleared by China’s rigorous censors, who generally remove violence, sex and politically edgy content. With such an exacting system, suspension on a film’s premiere date is unusual.
Tian Zaixing, general manager of the Beichen Fortune Center movie theater in the southern city of Kunming, said he could not recall any other imported film being halted on the opening day. The order from China Film Group came in a phone call around 10 a.m., he said.
Some have wondered how Django Unchained ever made it to the theaters in the first place — even if for only one minute. “Has no one in China seen the movie before?” tweeted The Good Doctor. Blood, sex, violence, revenge, the triumph of the strong-willed individiual over a conversative institution… these are not things Chinese censors like.
Alas, no one in the SARFT office is picking up their phones, so we might not know for a while. Perhaps there’s been an ideological clash within the agency, with one side favoring a loosening of censorship and the other desperately clinging to the status quo.
Never mind that there was never any need to pull the movie, since many in China have already seen it, whether online or via pirated DVDs. The crucial point here is: they can still see the movie, whether online or via DVD. What we’ll see now is the Barbra Streisand effect, in which the attempt to hide, remove or censor a product results in added publicity for said public, to the original censor’s detriment.
China does this often. We hope they never learn.
UPDATE, 4/14, 11:32 pm: It might return to Chinese theaters, but in an edited form.
UPDATE, 4/29, 1:56 pm: It’s set for re-release on May 7.
It wasn’t pulled for the violence or the sex. It was pulled because the squares in the CCP realized at the last moment what the movie is really about:: Revenge of the slave against a brutish, unaccountable master.
Must have hit a little too close to home, eh?
Wrong, it’s about Tarantino, but I could see how the censors might have thought that.
It’s about Tarantino, eh? A movie is not a person, genius.
Don’t worry, I totally support your right to freedom of making an ass of yourself!
Try again. The movie Django Unchained is a biopic about its director, Quentin Tarantino. Please do your research next time before commenting on Beijing Cream.
Yeah, whatever dude. We all know what your apologist game is: Throw out just enough gibberish into the discussion so that the ambivalent and the underinformed start having second thoughts about the subject at hand.
That’s what people like you do, because in most cases that’s all ya got.
I was referring to Tarantino’s ego, but you took me literally so I ran with it. You sure are paranoid, man. Lay off the weed or something.
Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of “slave of the Hollywood movie industry,” but regardless, you’re still hack with zero credibility.
We all know that you know which side your bread is buttered on, and comment accordingly.
As the author pointed out, who cares that it was pulled from theatres. It’s been out on the black market as a DVD and available for download on numerous websites for months.
Oh, the hubris of content creators expecting to get paid for their work!