China bans Hong Kong film, "10 Years" for being, "a virus of the mind".

[Ruprecht]

Next year will be the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese control, and not everyone is happy with the path things have taken...



A film tipped to win best picture at a prestigious Asian awards night has been pulled from cinemas in the latest attempt by the Chinese Government to crack down on dissent.

Ten Years has been hailed as one of the best films to come out of Hong Kong in decades, but has emboldened the voice of protest from leaders of the pro-democracy movement in the city.
The film is a very dark vision of Hong Kong in 2025 under greater Chinese control.
In the film, Cantonese — the language of Hong Kong — is forbidden, protesters set themselves alight and local politicians are assassinated.
China has banned the broadcast of the Hong Kong Film Awards, calling Ten Years "a virus of the mind".
In an act of defiance, the film was screened in 40 public spaces across Hong Kong this weekend and 7,000 people turned up.
One viewer, Pamela Lam, said: "The film is about 10 years in time, but it's gradually happening in Hong Kong at the moment.
"I'm worried Hong Kong is just going to fade out and become another Chinese city."
Another film-goer, Sandy Li, said Ten Years "addresses our deepest concerns about Chinese control … that we will lose our identity and freedoms in Hong Kong".

Rule of law, human rights 'decreasing'
Ten Years was made on a shoestring budget.
Producer Andrew Choi said he had been surprised by its success.
"I hope it can awaken some of the feelings and discussions among Hong Kong people that they can be brave and stand up for what they believe," he said.
It is certainly a case of art imitating life.
In Hong Kong, calls for independence are growing and it is the young who at the forefront.
Joshua Wong, 19, was one of the leaders of the umbrella revolution in 2014 that stopped the city with protests and sit-ins for three months.
Next week he will announce a new political party to contest the Hong Kong legislative election in September.
"Since the handover, our core values are being eroded — the rule of law is decreasing, human rights are decreasing," he said.
"It's all moving backwards, things are worse since 1997."
Mr Wong is facing five years' jail for organising the demonstrations.
He said people would continue to gather "to fight for democracy, to fight for freedom, especially the right of self-determination".
The editor of Hong Kong University's magazine, Marcus Lau, said people had lost faith with the "one country, two system" campaign.
Mr Lau is calling for a new constitution and wants the United Nations to recognise Hong Kong as a sovereign nation independent from mainland China.
But China is not about to let that happen and has called these latest moves "a fake proposition without any possibility of realisation".
The stage is set for more conflict and confrontation.
Mr Lau believes protests will become more frequent and more radical "as the Hong Kong Government is not responding to the people's calls".

 

[Abezal]

I'm more surprised how soft they been more then this.

Any ideas books think tank prediction of how a potential civil war uprising revolution what not in china will look like ?

How is my ability to buy cheap shit going to be affected ?

 

[wlu29]

F China

 

[Metusalemi]

Marketing gimmick.

 

[Ruprecht]

Marketing gimmick.

I was hoping there might be a (badly) dubbed or subbed version I could check out. Unfortunately, despite making waves, I think the limited release in Hong Kong last year is all it's getting.

 

[bobgeese]

In a fairly modern society, can't these people find ways to view the video?


You would think it would drive MORE people to watch the film.

 

[Ruprecht]

In a fairly modern society, can't these people find ways to view the video?


You would think it would drive MORE people to watch the film.

I think it's just a ban of coverage on the mainland. They aren't broadcasting the Hong Kong film awards because Ten Years was nominated.
It was also "mysteriously" pulled from cinemas in Hong Kong...

 

[Thames]

Nothing suprising there, but it's sad.
I mean they banned the movie that is in my avatar (Raise The Red Lantern) for putting confucianism in a critical light, and Yimou's other movie Ju Dou got banned for showing a woman disobeying and cheating on her man. In fact most of the movies directed by the so called "fifth generation" in China has gotten banned (though the ban reasons there are usually more obvious, like the movies that are deeply critical of Mao).

China is still very heavy on censorhip. It's a huge shame (especially since Hong Kong got so many great filmmakers), but luckily the censorship/bans are usually very counter productive, since it just raises interest. And these days people will find a way to watch it regardless.

 

[Ruprecht]

Nothing suprising there, but it's sad.
I mean they banned the movie that is in my avatar (Raise The Red Lantern) for putting confucianism in a critical light, and Yimou's other movie Ju Dou got banned for showing a woman disobeying and cheating on her man. In fact most of the movies directed by the so called "fifth generation" in China has gotten banned (though the ban reasons there are usually more obvious, like the movies that are deeply critical of Mao).

China is still very heavy on censorhip. It's a huge shame (especially since Hong Kong got so many great filmmakers), but luckily the censorship/bans are usually very counter productive, since it just raises interest. And these days people will find a way to watch it regardless.

Yeah, I used to have interesting discussions with Chinese students about Falun Dafa and censorship. The most striking thing was how little most of them seemed to be aware of it.
I thought Hong Kong's economic success might have ensured it a greater degree of freedom, but apparently not...

 

[ironwolf]

I think it's just a ban of coverage on the mainland. They aren't broadcasting the Hong Kong film awards because Ten Years was nominated.
It was also "mysteriously" pulled from cinemas in Hong Kong...

People are already downloading it and circulating it. My wife is actually downloading as I type this.

 

[Thames]

Yeah, I used to have interesting discussions with Chinese students about Falun Dafa and censorship. The most striking thing was how little most of them seemed to be aware of it.
I thought Hong Kong's economic success might have ensured it a greater degree of freedom, but apparently not...

Yeah, chinese people are usually very ignorant on these issues, but an increasing amount is paying notice. Their internet censorhip has been circumvented for a long time now, by the chinese youth. It's getting increasingly hard for totalitarian governments to spew propaganda.

That link made me sad.. My country is almost going in the same direction..
http://www.thelocal.dk/20160330/denmark-preps-measures-against-hate-preachers

All hail dear leader

 

[Ruprecht]

Yeah, chinese people are usually very ignorant on these issues, but an increasing amount is paying notice. Their internet censorhip has been circumvented for a long time now, by the chinese youth. It's getting increasingly hard for totalitarian governments to spew propaganda.

That link made me sad.. My country is almost going in the same direction..
http://www.thelocal.dk/20160330/denmark-preps-measures-against-hate-preachers

All hail dear leader

We've got anti-vilification laws here, but I don't think they've ever been successfully prosecuted.
Plenty of films and video games have been "refused classification". Usually as a matter of prudery rather than political censorship though.

 

[WrestlinganJudo]

I'm more surprised how soft they been more then this.

Any ideas books think tank prediction of how a potential civil war uprising revolution what not in china will look like ?

How is my ability to buy cheap shit going to be affected ?

China will not be able to maintain being a cheap producer. They have a pile of money they have stuck into bonds other countries have the stuff they made.

If they never use the currency they never get value from it.

 

[Thames]

We've got anti-vilification laws here, but I don't think they've ever been successfully prosecuted.
Plenty of films and video games have been "refused classification". Usually as a matter of prudery rather than political censorship though.

Yeah, I know Australia is extremely prudish when it comes to video games (I don't know if this also extends to movies and tv-shows?). Pretty much all the good video games have to be re-designed for sale in Australia. Even games like Fallout and The Witcher, like, wtf. How are you handling Game of Thrones over there?

Seriously though, where does this prudishness come from? I have family in Australia, and from the times I have visited, the australians I met there did not seem prudish at all (including the ones I have met here in Denmark). Perhaps I have been to the wrong (or right) places?

 

[Ruprecht]

Yeah, I know Australia is extremely prudish when it comes to video games (I don't know if this also extends to movies and tv-shows?). Pretty much all the good video games have to be re-designed for sale in Australia. Even games like Fallout and The Witcher, like, wtf. How are you handling Game of Thrones over there?

Seriously though, where does this prudishness come from? I have family in Australia, and from the times I have visited, the australians I met there did not seem prudish at all (including the ones I have met here in Denmark). Perhaps I have been to the wrong (or right) places?

Not sure how our broadcasting laws stack up against Canada or the nations of mainland Europe, but I do know they are much, much less fussed about swearing and nudity than the US or UK.
I think the prudish nature of the classification board is purely an artefact of the sort of individual that applies for the job. Being a wowser seems to be a part of the job description.
The sort of nonsense that sees depictions of prostitutes "refused classification" in various media, but prostitution itself being legal in most states in some form or other.

 

[Thames]

Not sure how our broadcasting laws stack up against Canada or the nations of mainland Europe, but I do know they are much, much less fussed about swearing and nudity than the US or UK.
I think the prudish nature of the classification board is purely an artefact of the sort of individual that applies for the job. Being a wowser seems to be a part of the job description.
The sort of nonsense that sees depictions of prostitutes "refused classification" in various media, but prostitution itself being legal in most states in some form or other.

I don't know about all of mainland Europe. But Scandinavia has no restrictions on nudity or swearing, to my knowledge. To give you an example here is the sex ed programs for kids, which airs on our public service channel (they still use the same progams back from when I was a kid): http://www.dr.dk/Bonanza/serie/Unge_og_satire/Body_bio.htm
If you click on the one named sex and go to 10:08, you will see a couple have explicit sex, putting on condom and everything. Obviously programs like that is not the norm, most programs are SFW (so to speak), but the possibility is there.

There's no censorhip of any kind (that is unless our dear leader gets his wish and restrict speech that "undermines our society"). I think it's the same in most of western Europe, perhaps with exception of the more religious countries like Spain, Switzerland and Italty (Eastern Europe probably got a lot of censorship).
I do know that Germany puts some restriction on violence and sexual content, which is weird, because that is probably the country in the world that is most relaxed with nudity (if you have ever walked through a park in Berlin, you will know what I'm talking about).

I see. I had to look up the word wowser, that is a pretty funny term. It seems kind of ridiculous, and I would absolutely despise if I had to settle for the censored down version of a product. My government will perhaps be able to tell me that I can't practice speech that undermines society, but I'll be damned if they restrict my freedom to see some titties.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

Nothing suprising there, but it's sad.
I mean they banned the movie that is in my avatar (Raise The Red Lantern) for putting confucianism in a critical light, and Yimou's other movie Ju Dou got banned for showing a woman disobeying and cheating on her man. In fact most of the movies directed by the so called "fifth generation" in China has gotten banned (though the ban reasons there are usually more obvious, like the movies that are deeply critical of Mao).

China is still very heavy on censorhip. It's a huge shame (especially since Hong Kong got so many great filmmakers), but luckily the censorship/bans are usually very counter productive, since it just raises interest. And these days people will find a way to watch it regardless.

Great movie by the way, raise the red lantern.