Why yes, shutterstock *does* have a category for “disapproving Chinese”

Just a few days ago, stories went around about Tarantino supervising a cut of Django Unchained that would pass Chinese censors. He was said to be “turning the blood to a darker color,” and “lowering the height of the splatter of blood,” among other things. At the time it was reported:

It was not clear whether China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) will take a look at Django Unchained in the wake of Tarantino’s alterations, though reports last month said the film had been passed for release providing minor cuts were made.

Well it sounds like they weren’t too thrilled with the final product, as Django screenings were abruptly cancelled across the country. Some audience members said it was stopped just minutes into the screening, leading many to wonder if the projectionist had played trick.

Quentin TARANTINO’s Django Unchained was pulled from Chinese cinemas this morning, (11 Apr 2013), on its opening day. Midnight previews of the film had been held just a few days ago.
Distributors China Film Group and Huaxia Film Distribution were to have given the film a wide national release on behalf of Hollywood studio Sony Pictures.
On social media, cinema chains blamed the cancellation on “technical reasons”. Some audience members claimed that the film was stopped one minute into its projection at morning screenings with no clear explanation given.

“You might wonder how different theaters in different cities could have the same ‘technical’ difficulties. And technically speaking, the man from the government said he would throw our asses in forced labor camps if we continued.”

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Jackie Chan has a bit of a history of working with Chinese government-financed film companies, and as we know, the Chinese government has some strict rules about what it will allow in its movies (Chan also has a history of endorsing some shady products, but that’s another story). Point is, he has in the past seemed perhaps a little too willing to work with repressive government organizations. In a recent interview, he goes so far as to condone repression.

Noting that Hong Kong suffered long periods of oppression under the British colonial administration, Chan said the eventual longing for freedom “does not mean people can do whatever they want.”
“Hong Kong has become a city of protest marches — that’s what the world has been saying,” he said in an interview with the Guangzhou-based magazine Southern People Weekly. “In the past it was Korea, now it’s Hong Kong. [Demonstrators were] scolding China, scolding [the country's] leaders, scolding everything. We should have rules dictating what [issues people] can march for, and which they can’t.”
During the conversation, Chan also repeated the controversial remarks he made at a business leaders’ forum at Boao in April 2009, when he said he’s “not sure” if personal freedom is a good thing and that the Chinese people “need to be controlled”.
“Traffic regulations need to be followed — and can we not regulate against counterfeits? I have learnt to follow laws. Whoever does that [management], even if it’s the government, I will support it,” Chan added.

Hmm, that last bit leads me to wonder if perhaps he’s gotten ineffective law enforcement confused with freedom of speech and assembly. He talks about regulating counterfeits, and you’re like okay, sure, but then he wants only certain kinds of protests allowed, and you think, “Whoa, easy there, Hitler.” But like all Hitlers, he does have a few good ideas. OH GOD HOW DO I ERASE THIS? Anyway, he also said Rush Hour was the film he dislikes most.

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Why yes, Shutterstock DOES produce results for "angry Chinese"

You’d think buying an entire film franchise for his son and setting it in China and letting the Chinese government sponsor it and making it about Kung Fu instead of Karate would be enough for Will Smith to get a pass from Chinese censors, but apparently they didn’t take too kindly to a scene in Men in Black 3 where a Chinatown restauranteur turns out to be an alien. The government insisted on removing three scenes in total, trimming the movie by 13 minutes.

The first features an extraterrestrial cunningly disguised as a Chinese waitress, while in the second a Chinese cashier girl attacks Will Smith’s character Agent J with her elastic alien tongue.
Perhaps the third deleted scene resonated most with the Chinese censors: It features Smith’s secret agent erasing the collective memories of a group of Chinese bystanders.
‘This could have been a hint on the use of internet censorship to maintain social stability,’ China’s Southern Daily newspaper mused.

Or, simply a metaphor for the way Men in Black movies instantly disappear from your mind the second you leave the theater. The DailyMail had an interesting rundown of what is and isn’t allowed:

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"Reedo boy go away! Stay out my store!"

The Jaden Smith/Jackie Chan Karate Kid remake was partially financed by the Chinese government (see: China Film Group Corps) and went on to gross $360 million worldwide, so why wouldn’t they want to make another one? The entire enterprise was the shameless sequel’s greatest success story. It was set in China and starred famous Kung Fu practitioner Jackie Chan, and they STILL called it KARATE Kid. Now Sony has wrangled poor Zak Penn (X-Men 2, Incredible Hulk), who’s probably a talented screenwriter, to do more of their dirty work. The Republicans bitch about China owning our economy every six minutes, and not one peep about this? Come on, guys, there’s low-hanging fruit here. Snatch the low-hanging fruit from this 12-year-old African-American boy– okay I probably could’ve worded this better.

Columbia Pictures has tapped “The Incredible Hulk” scribe Zak Penn to rewrite its untitled sequel to 2010′s surprise hit “The Karate Kid.”
Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris were hired to write a sequel just weeks after director Harald Zwart’s “Karate Kid” reboot took in $55.6 million domestically over its opening weekend. China-set pic went on to gross $359 million worldwide.
While plot details remain under wraps, original stars Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan are expected to reprise their roles, though no deals are currently in place. [Variety]

Phew, thank goodness, I don’t know what I’d do if Jaden Smith didn’t return. I just love it when famous people use their children as an extension of their personal fashion sense. Yo go, Will! You’ve imbued your progeny with such “swag!” Would that ALL of our children could one day wear sneakers with their own pictures on the side. Bullying would end, self-esteem would reign, and we’d all follow our dreams and groove in one groovy drum circle. I hope this trend continues, and three or four years from now we get to see Sly Stallone’s granddaughter, Dakota Lundgren, and Mickey Rourke’s dog in The Expendablets.

(…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.”