OMG. So funny. Ah well.
[FONT size=6]China sinks Dead Man's Chest [/FONT]
Staff and agencies
Monday July 10, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
It has broken all box office records in the US, but Chinese fans of Johnny Depp might have to resort to bootleg DVDs to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest after the country's notorious censors banned it from cinematic release.
Reports from China's media suggest the movie, which took a swashbuckling $132m (£71m) in its first three days Stateside, fell foul of the censors due to its violent and supernatural content. But, according to the Shanghai Daily, citing a cinema company official, [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff40"]the ban resulted from censors' objection to the portrayal of human cannibalism.[/FONT]
The sequel to 2002's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl could still qualify for cinematic release if it passes a second round of examination, according to a report in the daily Beijing News on Friday. [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff40"]The paper says the Film Bureau particularly disliked the portrayal of the souls of the dead - in the film, the ghost captain Davy Jones and his crew of lost sailors are depicted as half-human, half-aquatic fauna.[/FONT]
A Disney spokeswoman in Hong Kong said: "We are still gathering information from the Film Bureau and so at this point we cannot comment." China passes only 20 foreign films each year for cinematic viewing and does not have a film rating system. The Film Bureau typically rejects sex and violence but does not reveal its criteria.
Earlier this month it banned South Korea's highest-ever grossing film, The King and the Clown, about two 16th century jesters who mock a tyrannical king only to be hauled up before him. The movie was reportedly outlawed for its "subtle gay themes" and sexually explicit language. But the censors did pass Mission: Impossible III last month for a July 18 release after Paramount agreed to cut some scenes. One-third of the Tom Cruise film was shot in Shanghai and reports suggested the censors found its portrayal of China's largest city - with scenes of laundry hanging from washing lines and old people playing mahjong - insulting.
[FONT size=1]Source: [/FONT][A href="http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1817089,00.html"][FONT size=1]http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1817089,00.html[/FONT][/A]
