Avatar-Naavi1-Angry AsianSnakeman-Michelle Rodriguez
(…I don’t even know, dude.)

Despite being China’s highest-grossing movie ever, Avatar has been pulled from 2D screens in China by the state-run movie distributor, the China Film Group (incidentally, the same people helping finance Will Smith’s son’s Karate Kid movie).  There are conflicting reports as to why, ranging from a desire to reduce competition for local films, to a sensitivity to a plot that parallels a government policy of forced evictions to make way for development. Meanwhile, the government says everything is perfectly normal, and offered free truncheon massages to the head if you’ll just relax for a second (you may feel a slight bump).

Critics claim the film’s plot parallels the removal of millions of residents to make way for property developers. The government has also denied reports that a decision was made to reduce competition for home-grown films [such as Chow Yun-Fat's Confucius, opening next week].  Writing in English-language newspaper China Daily, columnist Huang Hung [Hee hee!] said the smash-hit film mirrored China’s rules on forced eviction.
“All the forced removal of old neighbourhoods in China makes us the only earthlings today who can really feel the pain of the Na’vi,” she wrote. [BBC]

However, David Wolf of Wolf Group Asia, a media consultancy based in Beijing, said the decision to pull “Avatar” had more to do with the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday.  “There’s certain windows in the year that are held for domestic films,” Wolf said. “We’re coming up on Chinese New Year, so this can be expected.” [LATimes]

Meanwhile, the folks from the Avatard forums, offended at the implication that they wouldn’t understand the Na’avi’s struggle, have taken to cutting themselves just to feel alive and performing strange sexual acts in which they get naked and pull their cats’ tails through the crotch, then touch them together and pretend to read each other’s thoughts.  Sources in Asia called the practice “perfectly normal.”