GERMANY: Uncensored Chinese film shows at Berlin film festival

Record ID: 817670

  • Title: GERMANY: Uncensored Chinese film shows at Berlin film festival
  • Date: 22nd February 2007
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 16, 2007) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) DIRECTOR YU LI SAYING: (Rough translation) "In Beijing, there are so many immigrants, it's like the United States was back in the day. And that is what is going on, everyone comes here (Beijing) trying to get rich and find a lucky chance and in that process they get lost, in that desire and with the current situation in China, they get lost in Beijing."
  • Embargoed: 9th March 2007 12:00
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  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA791PE2FEPGCE8RWG9F4E3HBFP
  • Story Text: An uncensored version of a Chinese film was screened at the Berlin film festival on Friday (February 16), its producer said, and the director told reporters she hoped she did not have to regret making the controversial picture.
    "Lost in Beijing" is in competition in Berlin, and has been at the centre of lengthy negotiations between its makers and Chinese state censors who had objections to some of the content including scenes involving sex and gambling. Producer Fang Li said that a compromise was finally agreed between the two sides, but there was insufficient time for the "Lost in Beijing" team to get two versions ready for Berlin -- one with English, and one with German subtitles.
    "This is to confirm that we are only able to provide Berlinale with the original market version (uncensored) of 'Ping Guo' ('Lost in Beijing')," Fang told the festival in an e-mail, which the Berlinale forwarded to Reuters. "We failed to finish the production work making both English and German subtitled prints for your festival, because we did not have enough time after the censor approval from China."
    Fang was the producer of another film, "Summer Palace", shown at Cannes film festival last year without official approval, resulting in its director Lou Ye getting a five-year ban from making movies.
    In an interview with Reuters, Li Yu, director of "Lost in Beijing" likened the censors to strict parents.
    "The censors, when we had our fourth version, said we couldn't go to the festival. It was as if your parents were saying 'you can't go out tonight'. There is no law that states you can't go out but you just can't do it because your parents tell you no," she said.
    Fang, who co-wrote the story with Li, said he believed the problem had more to do with age than politics.
    "I think the main problem is possibly that the system in China is not all that scientific. By which I mean that censorship really depends on people, on individuals and it's not an objective decision and often they are very old people who make the decision on what is to be censored and what is not. So this is really a conflict of generations, the generation gap, and actually we have 60, 70 and 80-year-olds who are responsible for making decisions on censorship and I think they simply don't like many of the scenes, I mean, for example we have got love-scenes with an 18-year-old girl and they just really don't like that," he said.
    The main objections from Chinese authorities were sex, gambling, scenes where an older woman has a relationship with a younger man and also how the behaviour of the four main characters reflects on Chinese society, Fang added.
    In the movie, much of it shot with hand-held camera to portray the bustle of Beijing, Ping Guo has a child but there is confusion over who the father is. Her husband seeks to sell the baby to a wealthy massage parlour owner who believes it is his, but the arising complications sorely test relations both between Ping Guo and her husband and the massage parlour owner and his wife. The film examines modern sexuality and how a booming economy produces as many losers as winners.
    "In Beijing, there are so many immigrants, it's like the United States was back in the day. And that is what is going on, everyone comes here (Beijing) trying to get rich and find a lucky chance and in that process they get lost, in that desire and with the current situation in China, they get lost in Beijing," said Li.
    "Lost in Beijing" stars Hong Kong veteran actor Tony Leung Kai Fai, mainland beauty Fan Bing Bing and Tong Da Wei in the title roles.
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