One of our favorite Chinese directors just released a new film, and by all indications, it's excellent. Jia Zhangke's A Touch of Sin, starring his wife Zhao Tao, is a Palme d'Or contender at Cannes, where it premiered on Thursday. The 133-minute film has alternatively been described as "a corrosive depiction of Chinese society" (LA Times) and "a scathing portrait of China's economic boom" (Globe and Mail). ...

What does a false start and a censor's curse get you? An opening that is kind of terrible. Django Unchained, after its premiere was unceremoniously pulled and indefinitely delayed last month, returned to mainland theaters on Sunday, five days after it was supposed to. It earned 3.7 million yuan. Not US dollars... yuan. ...

Chinese product placements, superfluous scenes with Fan Bingbing, inflated ticket prices... what did all of that get Iron Man 3's much anticipated debut in China this week? Only every record in the books. "Disney is confirming that Iron Man 3 broke every opening day record in China's box office," according to BoxOffice.com. "The official figure is currently $18,657,142 but it is expected rise to $21.5 milli ...

The closing ceremony for the third annual Beijing International Film Festival was held last Tuesday at the China National Convention Center, a multiplex which is the size and roughly the shape of an intergalactic ship docked on a bay of concrete just north of the National Aquatics Center on the Olympic Green. The event aims to be “international, professional, innovative, high-end and market-oriented," accor ...

The tireless, talented and slightly subversive Feng Xiaogang accepted the China Film Directors Guild's director of the year award on April 12, and he had some pointed things to say in his acceptance speech. Pointed things that you will not hear, because they were censored. Pointed as in the word "censorship." ...

Good news and bad news for those itching to watch Django Unchained. Seeing Red in China reports via China News that it might be returning to mainland China theaters, though likely not in its current form. There have been reports today that Django could be resumed late this month in Chinese theaters, provided that director Tarantino will cut what the Chinese censors ask him to cut. The New York Times elabora ...

I’m imagining myself walking a fictional waterside street in my hometown of Seattle, Washington. I pass a pregnant Chinese woman, a plethora of designer handbags laid before her on a table. “Sale! Sale!” the woman is shouting. What do I think of this woman? What assumptions do I make about her life in China and her journey to America? What do I think of her after learning she is in the country to give birth ...

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 import ...

According to Sina Weibo user @血一刀, the premiere of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained at the Sanlitun cineplex in Beijing was interrupted just one minute after it began: Staff members came in and said SARFT called and told them to postpone!! Who can tell me what the fuck is going on? @血一刀's post, from 10:34 am today, was forwarded by Li Kaifu, he of the 36.6 million Sina Weibo followers. Most people are n ...

Hot on the Iron Man 3 promotional trail, Robert Downey Jr. was in Beijing on Saturday, and basically showed everyone what publicity done right looks like. Reports People's Daily (Downey's quotes, all): I have been longing to come to China an it's a dream that has come true. In the West we think we understand China but we don't. What we see on TV, what we get from news, we assume that's our experience, [but] ...

There's been a lot of hoopla over one of Iron Man 3's film location, namely China -- we heard the buzz as early as April 2012 -- but only two notable Chinese actors appear in the film, Wang Xueqi and Fan Bingbing, and the latter doesn't even appear in the new trailer. How disappointing, considering Fan is, by some accounts, the most popular actress in China? ...

You might miss them if you blink, but Wang Xueqi -- who plays Dr. Wu -- and Fan Bingbing -- who plays his assistant -- actually appear in the latest trailer for Iron Man 3. We saw Wang posing with an Iron Man in Beijing in December. Fan's role is small enough, unfortunately, she doesn't even make it on IMBD's list of cast and crew. Oh well. We'll still watch, because Iron Man is cool. ...

I think, after putting Lei Feng on a telephone pole cross last year, there's not much more we can do to commemorate this year's Learn from Lei Feng Day, even if today marks the 50th year anniversary of this "annual ritual in memory of one of [China's] great sons, Lei Feng, a People's Liberation Army soldier known for his selfless help to others," according to Shanghai Daily. Ritual. Great sons. Selfless hel ...

Shanghai Restoration Project is an electronic group whose latest 12-track album, Pictures in Motion, features tributes to classic Hollywood films set in Shanghai. The "mostly original compositions" were "each inspired by a different movie from the era," according to the description on the above video. ...

Cats have nine lives, but 26-year-old Zhejiang province-based actor Shi Zhongpeng has eight. At least, he does as an actor in Chinese movies featuring Japanese villains. According to Qianjing Evening News via AFP, last year he acted as a member of the Japanese army more than 200 times, dying up to eight times a day -- though his biggest wish was to act as a Communist soldier in the Eighth Route Army, which ...

In what can only be regarded as “Hollywood with Chinese Characteristics,” 38 minutes of Cloud Atlas, a sci-fi drama starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, have been deemed unfit for Chinese audiences. In America the movie suffered from lukewarm reviews; in China, it suffered from mass excision, notably love scenes involving both straight and gay couples. ...

Jeremy Lin caused us to launch prematurely. We had a date in mind for Beijing Cream's debut -- February 21, for reasons that now elude me -- but Lin began tearing it up in New York earlier in the month, and I just couldn't sit on Linsanity. Who could? Five of the first seven posts that appeared on BJC were about him. (All of them except this one completely sucked, but that's beside the point.) I bring this ...

Just watch this trailer. An upcoming documentary about love in modern China. Directed & shot by Nathan Mauger / Produced by Connie Young & Joe Xu / Executive Producer Tomas Etzler / Written & edited by Joe Xu & Nathan Mauger / Music by Philipp Mandelartz One of the producers of the movie, Joe Xu, wrote about some of his experiences on chinaSMACK, ...

Proving that success can come from unexpected places, the most commercially successful Chinese film to date isn't a high-production martial arts flick, doesn't star Jackie Chan, ignores themes of republic-building, and isn't even set in China. Reports AP: Chinese state media say the wacky road movie "Lost in Thailand" has grossed more than 1 billion yuan ($160 million) since its Dec 12 debut. ...

Los Angeles filmmaker Long Cuu Phan has lived in Beijing for the last four years, and for at least the last two of them, he's been working on a script that's "near and dear" to his heart. Set in modern-day Beijing, Youth is about a college student whose world unravels when she discovers her father's new wife is pregnant. "It's what would happen if you remixed Ozu x Godard x Korean Romcoms," Phan writes. ...