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China's censors ban film on seedy Beijing
2008-01-04
Chinese censors have banned an award-winning film that depicted the seedy side of Beijing, authorities said, amid a campaign to clean up the city's image ahead of the August Olympics. In announcing the ban on "Lost in Beijing", the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television hit out at its sexual content and its unapproved participation in international film festivals. "Parts of the film violate regulations on sexual content... while unhealthy and inappropriate promotional materials for the film were also distributed," the administration said in a notice posted on its website on Thursday. The film is set in a massage parlour, with the plot centring on the rape of a peasant masseuse, played by up-and-coming mainland starlet Fan Bingbing. She is raped by the massage parlour's owner and the plot focuses on how the two deal with her subsequent pregnancy. Massage parlours are well known in Beijing as fronts for prostitution, an illegal practice that nevertheless thrives. The film, directed by Li Yu, premiered internationally at the Berlin Film Festival in February last year. The film was also awarded a Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Bangkok International Film Festival. Theatres around China, including in Beijing, had already begun showing the film when the ban was issued. In its notice, the administration said producer Fang Yi and production company Beijing Laurel Films had also been banned from making and distributing films on the Chinese mainland for two years. Fang has been in trouble with censors before, co-producing "Summer Palace," a politically charged love story centred around the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests. That movie was banned in 2006. The ban on "Lost in Beijing" comes as the government ramps up its campain to improve the city's image ahead of its hosting of this year's Olympics. Police this week began a campaign to drive beggars off the streets, according to reports in the state-run press. Authorities are also busy trying to "civilise" people with campaigns teaching them not to jump queues, spit or litter. Meanwhile, high-profile critics of the government are being rounded up. Most recently, human rights activist Hu Jia was last week arrested and charged with subversion, according to other dissidents.
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