Report: China blocks Japan-flavored Taiwan film
By MIN LEE,AP Entertainment Writer
Yahoo news

HONG KONG - China has reversed its decision to import a hit Taiwanese film that highlights Japan's 50-year colonial rule over the island because it may be offensive to nationalist sentiment on the Chinese mainland, news reports said.

"Cape No. 7" is Taiwan's most successful movie in years, earning more than 231 million New Taiwan dollars ($6.9 million) since its release on Aug. 22 and becoming the island's second top-grossing movie after the Hollywood romance "Titanic."

"Cape No. 7" is about a failed Taiwanese rock musician who returns to his small coastal hometown and is forced to play in a hastily assembled amateur band that will open for a Japanese pop star. He falls in love with the Japanese publicist overseeing the show.

The movie is also interspersed with a voice-over that reads from love letters written by a Japanese man to his Taiwanese love interest just after the island's colonial era ended. Japan ruled Taiwan from 1895 to 1945.

Cecille Huang, a marketing official at Taiwan's ARS Film Production, the company that made "Cape No. 7," said it had sold distribution rights to the import and export arm of the state-run China Film Group.

But "Cape No. 7" has sparked worries among Chinese officials that it might cause a nationalistic backlash in the mainland, newspapers reported. Japan also occupied parts of mainland China before and during World War II.

Chen Yunlin, a senior Chinese official in charge of relations with Taiwan, said the movie was tainted by its portrayal of Taiwanese who had been subject to "colonial brainwashing," Taiwan's United Daily News reported on its Web site Monday.

Reached on his phone Monday, Yuan Wenqiang, general manger of China Film Group's import-export arm, said he was in a meeting and couldn't immediately comment. Calls to China Film Group spokesman Weng Li rang unanswered.

Huang said she was still confirming the newspaper reports and had no further comment.

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, with the mainland ruled by the Chinese Communist Party and the small island ruled by the Nationalists. Beijing continues to claim now-democratic Taiwan as its territory and has threatened to retake it by force, while many Taiwanese say they have a separate cultural identity and prefer to keep the status quo.

China also decided not to release the 2005 Hollywood movie "Memoirs of a Geisha," apparently fearful that the sight of Chinese actresses Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li portraying Japanese entertainers would offend mainland viewers.

Sigh... It's becoming gradually more difficult to entertain people these days. Just about everything is offensive. People have got to lighten up a bit.

Argh, no! *sigh* Censorship by pulling it from the Chinese market seems a bit extreme in this case. Ah well, at least Cape No. 7 is doing well in other countries, like HK. Hope it gets worldwide recognition and maybe an international film award!

their loss, they support that govt thats what they get . this film should be appreciated only by those who actually think of it as a film, a fictional piece of work not as "nationalistic backlash in the mainland" .

funny how they treat this film as though its some bomb that needs to be quanrantined

not surprised that China blocked the movie.. almost everything is banned there anyways.. lol.. but can't really blame them.. that is how their culture works.. and i respect that..

Wow... China even banned this one? I mean, if it's a part of your history what's the point of banning it? It should be the choice of the individual whether they want to watch the movie or not, not the government. I can just hope that the people of Mainland China can figure out a way to get out of the stranglehold their goverment has on them and be able to make decisions for themselves in the future...

~Tiffiany~

ah no biggie. people will just download & watch it. like they already do with every japanese, taiwanese, etc. movies "banned" in china.

How can you erase 50 years of history? Korea was a Japanese colony too and some the old Koreans still couldn't accept the fact that their younger generation listen to Japanese music and watch Japanese movies and dramas. Mainland China claims Taiwan as a part of China as Macau and Hong Kong had been returned but what if Taiwan wants autonomy?

This is just a movie telling about what happened during the time it was a Japanese colony and not a Taiwanese propaganda... or would they rather the revenue go to bootlegged copies?
And as alfiesgal says, this is no big thing...people will just download everything that China banned.

It's true China bans almost anything that seems just a lil bit off, not only because of the colonial rule history, but I think this movie might probably upset some citizens too.
Like the article say, it's a Japan-flavor movie (now if it was more China-flavor about this period... I think 'Lust, Caution?' then that'd be a different story). Having this movie showing across China and whatnot will only bright public commotion... Like my grandparents and mom. They totally hate anything that take the Japan's side (well not necessarily, but in a different light than they know it) because they went through that period or their parents did and got influenced by them. Well, I dont really care for that since that was history, and I'm downloading this movie right now, but well yeah, old folks like my mom and grandparents will just scoff at this movie. xD And some young people too... My friends totally hate Japanese-related things while I'm totally into them. xD xD

This post has been edited by minimin: Dec 2 2008 12 12 AM

I have studied Chinese History. I totally understand why they are not allowing the film to be shown in China, because Japan invaded and massacred thousands of people. I think, though, that people should be allowed to see it and it is part of Chinese history. I know that I want to see it.

Well here's to hoping that a few years or generations from now china won't be banning anything. Anyway just because it is officially "banned" doesn't mean that people won't download and pirate the crap out of it. Like pretty much every movie, i bought trunkloads of bootleg when i went there over the summer