"Dark Knight" Won't Play In China

HONG KONG — Batman landed in Hong Kong but that doesn't mean "The Dark Knight" will open all over China.

The movie opened in Hong Kong theaters. But Warner Bros. decided not to release the film in mainland China _ or even submit it for censors' approval _ because of "prerelease conditions" and "cultural sensitivities," the studio said Tuesday.

Warner Bros. officials may have been concerned the film _ particularly scenes shot in Hong Kong, where Batman nabs a gangster _ would offend censors. Hong Kong is a Chinese-ruled former British colony that maintains separate political and economic systems.

Another possible sticking point is a brief appearance by Hong Kong actor-singer Edison Chen, who appeared in lurid photos with several women this year.

Bootleg copies have been available in Chinese markets for months.

Comments

[paulcarr]

11:23 PM on 12/28/2008

I checked out the original AP article here:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_THE_DARK_KNIGHT?SITE=CTNHR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The Huffington Post changed the title from "WB shrouds 'Dark Knight' from Chinese audiences" to ""Dark Knight" won't play in China".

Paul Carr

[ramblingjohnny]

12:26 AM on 12/28/2008

Yeah it probably well "distributed" in China anyway!

[ECB]

08:34 PM on 12/27/2008

"WHY SO SERIOUS" ??????????

[SENATORCALLENBOWE]

02:56 PM on 12/27/2008

TRY A TRANSLATOR :)

[leeman79]

06:26 AM on 12/27/2008

It sucked anyway.

[DoomtoNeoCons]

12:21 PM on 12/28/2008

Negative. Terriffic movie. Great summer fare.

[Adrienne Williams]

12:37 AM on 12/27/2008

I never seen it but just got it on Amazon! Can't wait to it hit my door!

[nuglet304]

04:32 PM on 12/26/2008

too bad for them. this movie's so awesome!

[mergina]

01:02 PM on 12/26/2008

China is pitifully hippocritical. Guilty of human rights violations and banning a movie. Yeeeech!

[spiderbucket]

11:53 AM on 12/26/2008

F--- your backward primitive governement, China. Free speech trumps everything including 'cultural sensitivity.' We should never have started doing business with countries that oppress basic human rights in the 1st place.

[CologneCitizen]

10:36 AM on 12/28/2008

You are violating human rights every day in Guantanamo. Talking about backward primitive government, the USA is in no position to lecture anybody. Unless Obama reworks the mess Bush has created, you have to remain silent until further notice.

[DoomtoNeoCons]

12:26 PM on 12/28/2008

Ummm, no. The Chinese Government doesn't represent all of the views of the Chinese people. Just Like the American Government doesn't represent the views of every American. Telling people not to speak out against oppression because of something their goverment does or is doing, does nothing but make the one saying it look like a total a__hole.

[paulcarr]

11:55 PM on 12/28/2008

If the United States of America wants to preach about Human Rights then, at least, it should be consistent in doing so. Cold War Allies and Buddies should also be criticised and they're not.

Take Saudi Arabia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_abuses_in_Saudi_Arabia

Recently, "a woman, victim of a gang rape, was sentenced by a Saudi court to six months in prison and 200 lashes for violating laws on segregation of the sexes, as she was in an unrelated man's car at the time of the attack."

Did the USA condemn this? Bush's display of shock and horror at the treatment of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban kinda rings hollow.

In Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej is one of the USA's Cold War buddies. In Thailand, if you criticize him, you could be put in prison for up to 15 years. Any protest of Thailand's stupid "lese majeste" laws by this US President or any previous President or even the State Department?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej

And worst of all, India.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4173

There are millions of slaves in India, especially in impoverished states like Uttar Pradesh. Yet, in 2006 and 2007, Condolezza Rice ignored the advice of the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to repudiate the Central Indian Government's inaction. I thought the issue of slavery would resonate strongly given the USA's own history.

[paulcarr]

01:34 AM on 12/26/2008

Gotham city is a fictional name for a city. Why couldn't Warner Bros. give Hong Kong and China fictional names too? In the film, Batman, Gotham's DA, Harvey Dent and Police Commissionar James Gordon discuss the Gangster Lau's escape to "Hong Kong". Harvey Dent says, "The Chinese won't extradict a National under any circumstances". And then Batman agrees to bring Lau back to Gotham city. So, there you have it. Batman agrees to violate Chinese sovereignty.

The article goes: "But Warner Bros. decided not to release the film in mainland China _ or even submit it for censors' approval _ because of "prerelease conditions" and "cultural sensitivities," the studio said Tuesday.".

So, it's the studio's fault, not China's. China wasn't even given the opportunity to censor it. What does the studio mean by "prerelease conditions"?

I've been in Beijing for some time and I haven't seen any pirated DVD copies so far. I downloaded my copy from the internet.

It doesn't surprise me at all that "Dark Knight" won't be shown in cinemas in mainland China. After I downloaded and watched "Dark Knight" 2 weeks ago, it struck me like a bolt of lightning why I couldn't find any bootlegged copies of this film on the streets of Beijing before

Even if the studio did submit it for approval with the Chinese censor, it probably would have been rejected. Then, the studio may have had the opportunity to make editions. But, apparently, the studio wasn't interested in going that far.

[rektruax]

08:47 AM on 12/26/2008

You make a very interesting point there...

[spiderbucket]

11:55 AM on 12/26/2008

Screw them. They haven't shown any care for their own citizens. Why pander ?

[KataVideo]

11:58 PM on 12/25/2008

The heinous specter of state censorship has deprived the freedom-seeking people of China of watching this truly dreadful, special-effects-laden crapfest with all of its wooden acting (except the dead guy) and plot holes.

[BannedInBoston]

07:35 PM on 12/25/2008

Many Asian cultures seem to have trouble confronting the concept of "mental disorder". I don't mean this as any kind of implied put-down or negative suggestion. But I think it is true and I am not sure why this is. For the Chinese, it may have something to do with their cultural obsession with order....

[Adrienne Williams]

12:40 AM on 12/27/2008

Well in Japan -- it has to do with perfection or others not seeing the whole society as something great, or weak! Any type of mental illness (yes, gays fall in this role) then it's not talked about. So sad because there is a growing issue with suicide in Asia.

[LMPE]

07:22 PM on 12/25/2008

Has the Chinese government allowed "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" to get shown in their country? Considering that it subliminally pokes fun at the American way of life - it's all about greed - they gotta accept it.

[TattereD 1]

05:36 PM on 12/25/2008

http://movielab.tv/
or
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=3LOYWAC8

Problem solved. The Chinese wrote the book on getting around censorship and unnecessary internet blocks. I'm sure there's one guy who doesn't know about these hundreds of sites that make new movie streams readily available. And lets not forget a wonderful program made by Bram Cohen called Bittorrent. I think China will be okay on this subject.

[emsique]

08:19 PM on 01/12/2009

I agree. I'm living in China now and can get huffpo even though it's blocked. Yay magic internets tubes jockeys! The Dark Knight has been available on DVD here in almost any video store since at least April. The central government of China tries to control the internet and what people can see and read, but this is an enterprising people that are very resourceful.

[RGKahn]

04:43 PM on 12/25/2008

The reason it won't officially be release on "mainland" China is interesting, but not very important. With the amount of bootlegged copies available in China, probably more people have seen it on DVDs than the entire population if the U.S.A. It has come to a point where you can probably buy a boot-legged copy of a new film before on or about the date the picture is released on its official opening day here in the states.