China bans 'Memoirs of a Geisha', currently being screened in Malaysia

Thursday February 2, 2006

China bans 'Memoirs of a Geisha', currently being screened in Malaysia
and featuring Datuk Michelle Yeoh

HONG KONG: The Chinese government has canceled the release of "Memoirs
of a Geisha'' - a decision made amid speculation that officials are
worried the sight of Chinese actresses playing Japanese geishas would
stir a backlash.

The film originally was cleared for distribution on Feb. 9, but the
State Administration of Radio, Film and TV reversed itself over the
weekend, according to Sony Pictures Entertainment, which had planned to
release the film in China.

The official reasons weren't clear.

Chinese offices were mostly closed for the Chinese New Year holiday
Thursday.

Calls to the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV and the
state-owned China Film Group, the movie's distributor within China,
went unanswered.

"We were pleased by their acceptance of the film in November and were
disappointed by this decision,'' Jim Kennedy, a spokesman for Sony
Pictures Entertainment, said.

But illegal copies of the movie are already available in China, which
has come under heavy criticism for rampant piracy.

High-quality "Memoirs'' DVDs surfaced in Shanghai weeks ago.

"Memoirs,'' based on the best-selling novel by Arthur Golden, features
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' star Zhang Ziyi, former Bond girl
Michelle Yeoh and Gong Li from "Raise the Red Lantern'' as geishas -
entertainers skilled in dance, song and conversation.

The casting choices may have raised fears in the Chinese government of
provoking strong anti-Japanese sentiment.

Sino-Japanese relations have been strained in recent years over
territorial disputes and a lingering sense among many Chinese that
Japan hasn't sufficiently apologized for its World War II-era military
atrocities.

China says up to 300,000 people were killed in Nanjing, the eastern
city formerly known as Nanking, during a 1937 rampage of murder, rape
and looting by Japanese troops.

Many Chinese could be offended by the symbolism of ethnic Chinese
actresses serving Japanese, albeit in a movie.

Adding the already sensitive nature of the film, Zhang's character in
the film serves a businessman who was a Japanese soldier in China's
then-Japanese-occupied territory of Manchuria.

Among recent anti-Japanese backlash, demonstrators vandalized
Japanese-related shops and smashed windows at Japanese diplomatic
offices in Shanghai and Beijing in April to protest alleged
whitewashing of atrocities in Japanese textbooks.

Chinese entertainers perceived as insensitive to anti-Japanese
sentiment can provoke a strong reaction.

Chinese actress-singer Zhao Wei is widely reported to have been smeared
with human feces during an assault after once wearing a shirt bearing
the Japanese military flag.

Chinese Internet postings have already denounced Zhang as an
embarrassment to China.

The failure of "Memoirs'' to get released in China is not a big
financial loss for its U.S. producers.

While China has a population of 1.3 billion, its movie viewing culture
is still developing, focused mainly in big cities.

The domestic box office last year came in at just 2 billion Chinese
yuan (US$248 million; euro206 million), while a big hit in the U.S. can
rake in hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars alone. - AP

For Another perspective from the China Daily, a partner of Asia News
Network, click here

Latest entertainment news from AP-Wire


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