Kow-towing to China has become a reflex for actors, writers, producers, directors and studio executives in pursuit of the world’s second-biggest box office, a trend set to intensify as China overtakes the US as the No 1 film market.

Recent blockbusters such as Iron Man 3 and Django Unchained, and others in the pipeline such as Transformers 4 and Brad Pitt’s World War Z, have been modified to please Chinese authorities and audiences, prompting accusations of artistic surrender.

“It’s got to the point where everyone is thinking: how are we going to make a movie that, at the very least, is not offensive to the Chinese public?” said Peter Shiao, chair of the US-China Film Summit and founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Orb Media Group. [Source]

Foreign productions have still been largely locked out of Chinese theaters this month, according to Wei Xi at Global Times, though the trend appears less pronounced than last year:

Despite the fact that a number of Hollywood blockbusters, including After Earth, Pacific Rim, 3D Jurassic Park and Monsters University, are standing in a queue waiting for a screen permit, the June schedule doesn’t have a place for them. So far, only Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel has been given a screening date.

[…] Yet in movie critic Wang Siwei’s opinion, the self-evident domestic protection manner is looser this year than 2012. While in almost two months no foreign movie was screened in mainland theaters last year, several Hollywood works will be permitted in June 2013, and a lot more are currently set for July.

It is because “the early months of 2011 saw the sad defeat of domestic movies at the box office, but this year the situation is much better,” Wang said.

U.S. filmmakers are not the only ones hoping to profit from China’s lucrative film market. Ordinary Chinese are lining up for work as movie extras and a long shot at stardom. From Tania Branigan, also at The Guardian:

For the past decade – since a director spotted his wispy beard and corrugated cheeks – Zhao, 87, has supplemented meagre benefits with his earnings from bit parts in films and TV melodramas. “I do it to eat,” he said. “I’m old and I can’t labour any more, but I can act. There’s no risk, no investment.”

Each morning he joins scores of hopefuls milling around the former Beijing film studio, in the north of the Chinese capital in search of money, fun or fame.

[...] Zhao said the story of Wang Baoqiang, who became a star after a director chose him for the bleak but gripping drama Blind Shaft, inspired many more to gather at the gates. None of them has enjoyed the same success. [Source]

Many extras find themselves playing Japanese soldiers in the thriving genre of anti-Japanese war dramas. From a special report at Reuters by David Lague and Jane Lanhee Lee:

Shi Zhongpeng dies for a living. For 3,000 yuan ($488) a month, the sturdily built stuntman is killed over and over playing Japanese soldiers in war movies and TV series churned out by Chinese film studios.

[…] “I play a shameful Japanese soldier in a way that when people watch, they feel he deserves to die,” Shi says. “I get bombed in the end.”

[…] Some film reviewers in China say that with the censors declaring so many other subjects off limits, it is only natural that the war dominates story-telling in a competitive market for viewers and advertising.

[…] Zhu [Dake, of Shanghai's Tongji University] estimates war stories make up about 70 percent of drama on Chinese television. The state administrator approved 69 anti-Japanese television series for production last year and about 100 films. Reports in the state-controlled media said up to 40 of these were shot at Hengdian alone. State television reported in April that more than 30 series about the war were filming or in planning by the end of March. [Source]

With the rise of diplomatic tensions between China and Japan over the Diaoyu (or Senkaku) Islands, the popularity of  anti-Japanese films has only increased. But The Economist reports signs that the genre may be falling out of favor with the authorities:

JAPAN’S wartime depredations in China in the 1930s and 1940s have long been good business for Chinese television producers. Political tensions between the two nations have only increased their popularity. Now China’s television regulator has ordered that provincial stations send all such programmes back to Beijing for more vetting before transmission. The move follows a prominent news story on national television criticising “crude and shoddily produced” anti-Japanese dramas. It suggests official concerns about the quality of the shows though not necessarily about their politics.

[…] From 2002 to 2004 modern crime-investigation dramas dominated prime time. Then the regulator stepped in. Officials have also placed restrictions on programmes involving time travel, some of which use historical settings to criticise current politics. As the diplomatic heat rises, reining in anti-Japanese dramas may prove more difficult. [Source]

Click through for more CDT coverage on China’s film industry.

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In the first quarter this year, ticket sales for American movies in China — including films as prominent as “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and “Skyfall” — fell 65 percent, to about $200 million, while sales for Chinese-language films rose 128 percent, to well over $500 million, according to the online publication Chinafilmbiz.com.

The weekend brought one sign of a rebound for Hollywood: “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” from Paramount Pictures, took in a respectable $33 million at the Chinese box office, matching roughly 75 percent of its ticket sales when it opened in the North American market on March 28.

But if the preferences of Chinese moviegoers continue to shift to domestic releases, China will maintain control of its own film market just as Hollywood was ready to seize it.

When “Iron Man 3,” an action heavyweight from Disney’s Marvel Entertainment, opens in coming days, it will slug it out with a small, domestically made romance called “So Young,” about a Chinese woman who reconnects with her college sweethearts. It is hard to be certain which film will be the underdog.

Some studios have attempted to tailor versions of blockbuster films for the Chinese audience, such as Iron Man 3, which reportedly has an extra scene featuring two prominent Chinese actors. The film will not, however, be released as a co-production with a Chinese studio, which would have exposed it to a wider audience but would have also been subject to the scrutiny of Chinese censors. As the Guardian’s film blog explains, Hollywood has found it difficult to make inroads in the Chinese market without sacrificing the universal appeal of its films:

Unfortunately, Hollywood’s ersatz “fortune cookie” approach to its Chinese product probably won’t work for much longer. Increasingly discriminating Chinese filmgoers are seeking entertainment that unabashedly speaks for them, and the local industry is increasingly able to provide it. Since the turn of the year, Hollywood has slipped behind not because of the Chinese government’s anti-competitive practices, but because of a stream of hits from Chinese film-makers.

Low-budget comedy Lost in Thailand was a surprise hit in December, followed by Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac and more martial arts from Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster. Stephen Chow’s comeback film Journey to the West was another predictable rainmaker, but there was also a pair of breakout performers in cable TV spin-off Bring Happiness Home and romcom Finding Mr Right. And more are on their way. A formidable showing, then, for homegrown Chinese films in 2013′s first quarter. Lost in Thailand, Chinese Zodiac and Journey to the West all grossed $100m+ at home – and it’s been a year since a Hollywood import (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) managed that. Despite the oriental mood music, Skyfall disappointed in China compared to Daniel Craig’s first two outings – taking just under $60m.

Could this be the start of a divergence of tastes that will make US films try a lot harder to woo Chinese audiences? Buying preferential treatment and milking the PR works for single, high-impact projects such as Iron Man 3, but it’s hardly the kind of comprehensive rethinking needed by the studios to be seriously in the running against local competitors operating with Hollywood savvy. There will come a point when the Chinese, quite understandably, want a Chinese Iron Man.

Update: In response to news that DreamWorks Animation (DWA) is teaming up with China Film Group (CFG) to produce Tibet Code, an animated film set in 9th century Tibet, ChinaFile is hosting an online discussion about Hollywood in China.

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Like a town marshal determined to nip trouble in the bud, China’s main film distributor rode into the country’s movie theaters on Thursday and took out Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” before it could get its gun out of its holster.

“Django,” the story of an American slave-turned-bounty hunter who cuts a bloody swath through the antebellum South in an attempt to free his wife, was set to premiere in China Thursday morning. But it was pulled at the last minute after China Film Group, the film’s government-controlled importer, issued a notice instructing theaters to stop showing it.

[...]The movie had already begun showing in some places when the orders arrived. One Chinese fan of Mr. Tarantino’s, 27-year-old photographer Xue Yutao, said he had just sat down to watch a 10:15 a.m. showing of “Django” when the lights suddenly came on.

“About a minute after the film started, several people in suits came in and the film stopped,” he said, adding that the theater apologized and offered them refunds. “At first we were shocked and didn’t know what to do, but then we all laughed at how ridiculous it was.”

Whether or not screenings will resume in China is uncertain. The Guardian tells of official and speculated reasons why the film was pulled from theaters, and the adjustments already made to prepare for China’s tight media regulations:

Media authorities claimed the Quentin Tarantino film, scheduled for release on Thursday, had been postponed for “technical reasons”, but unofficial news websites reported that the real reason was a scene showing full-frontal male nudity.

[...]Tarantino, Django Unchained’s director, had already reined in the movie’s gore for the Chinese market, retouching footage to tone down the colour and bloodshed.

[...]Many online commenters were perplexed by the cancellations because the film had passed China’s notoriously opaque pre-screening censorship process. Censors’ “cutting hands are fiercer than that of a slaveowner, insistent on making Django a eunuch”, wrote one, according to Agence France Presse.

Off Beat China translates netizen commentary showing frustrated suspicion that the film was pulled due to nudity:

One netizen 桃桃林林小淘淘 commented: “Some people don’t have balls, so they cannot tolerate the thought that other people have. I guess that all penis scenes will be cut before the movie is allowed to be shown again.” Netizen imomad thought the same: “Everyone at the censor body is a Taijian (royal servants in China’s history who need to be castrated before taking the job). They don’t have, so others’ must be cut. Or maybe they are intimidated by Django’s size because their own have shrunk due to overuse.” Another netizen 影评老大爷暗夜骑士 commented: “In this hypocritical country, the corrupt and the rich can have group sex parties, and yet the ordinary people aren’t allowed to see a penis.”

Even Hu Xijin, chief editor of mouthpiece Global Times, thought it was a stupid move: “The showing of Django Unchained was stopped abruptly. The action itself does more harm to the country than a few uncut ‘harmful scenes.’ China’s current system lacks people who dare to speak out the truth on sensitive issues to prevent inappropriate policies from being made. Maybe the system doesn’t encourage such people. Absurd policies are everywhere. The government’s credibility among its people is what at cost.”

Even after being edited to satisfy Chinese censors, the film was set to run its marathon 165 minutes, unlike Cloud Atlas and Skyfall, which both saw significant portions cut before opening in China earlier this year. Hollywood has been increasing efforts to reach the Chinese market by catering to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), China’s media regulator. The Washington Times looks at Tarantino’s taming of Django (and other recent examples) to show the contradiction between Hollywood’s flaunting of free-speech ethics at home and its desire to tap into China’s burgeoning market:

“For an industry that promotes free expression and alleged liberal values to work with totalitarian government that is the antithesis of the values we hold dear as Americans is in many ways a hypocrisy,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.

“They often mask what they do with other values such as the First Amendment, but if indeed they are working with China’s censors, then obviously they don’t believe in those values,” said Fitton.

[...]“The censoring of content is simply ‘good business’ as far as the studios are concerned,” said Stephen Tropiano, an associate professor of screen studies at Ithaca College and author of Obscene, Indecent, Immoral and Offensive: 100+ Years of Censored, Banned, and Controversial Films.

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The original film, based on the novel of the same name, spanned 172-minutes long for European and American markets but was cut to just 137 for its mainland version, according to the film’s directors.

[…] “Although the mainland version is a bit constrained, [we] fully believe in the regulator’s editing standards,” said Cloud Atlas co-director Tom Tykwer, who was in Beijing on Tuesday to promote the movie ahead of its January 31 release.

[…] Material deleted mainly comprised of love scenes, gory sequences and nudity. A number of same-sex love scenes between actors Ben Whishaw and James D’Arcy were also cut from the film due to the Sarft’s strict ban on homosexual content.

Details of changes to the latest Bond film, Skyfall, also emerged last week following its belated Beijing premiere. While The Atlantic’s Matt Schiavenza dismissed the edits as “little more than a government tailoring a popular film for its audience“, Xinhua reported that the altered film had prompted calls for a less capricious censorship process:

Shi Chuan, a professor from Shanghai University’s school of film & TV arts and technology, proposed the enaction of relevant laws and the establishment of norms for movie censors to follow.

[…] “Movie regulators should respect the producers’ original ideas, rather than chopping scenes arbitrarily,” Shi said.

However, he said that he believes the censorship system is necessary for China’s film industry.

[…] During an annual session of China’s political advisory body held in March last year, Yin Li, vice chairman of the China Film Association, said Chinese film-making faces too many restrictions regarding sensitive topics such as public security, diplomacy, ethnic minorities and religion.

“I hope China can offer more freedom to film-makers so that a more favorable environment can be created for the country’s movie industry,” Yin said.

While money from the mainland has attracted attention recently, SCMP’s Vivienne Chow wrote that Cloud Atlas‘ financing suggests a role for Hong Kong in the global film industry:

According to veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Philip Lee, an executive producer of Cloud Atlas responsible for its fund-raising in Asia, Hong Kong has a unique edge in film financing, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Hong Kong is the Asian financial centre and has a long history in filmmaking. With more collaboration with foreign projects or companies, knowing how to find the right match is very important, and Hong Kong has the expertise,” says Lee, who served as an associate producer of the international hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and a line producer for Batman film The Dark Knight during its filming in Hong Kong.

[…] “The mainland certainly has capital, but can they find the right people? Not necessarily. Hong Kong can be more active in bridging this gap,” [Media Asia's head of distribution Ricky Tse Chi-keung] says.

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Wanda has been talking with some studios, as Mr. Wang promised when Wanda completed its $2.6 billion acquisition of AMC Entertainment with a flashy presentation in early September. But any progress has come in halting steps, according to people briefed on the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with the principals.

And that probably carries an overall message about the film industry’s current rush to do business in China: The promise is great, but much is still being lost in translation.

“Hollywood would prefer to accept what they commonly call ‘dumb money’ and not give very much back in return,” said Stanley Rosen, a University of Southern California political science professor who has written extensively about China. “China is now pushing back.”

Both sides are likely to continue pressing their efforts; Hollywood is eager to have a partner that can help it tap into China’s fast-growing film market, and Wanda wants to strengthen its foothold in the lucrative North American market. But the slow going underscores the disconnect inherent in negotiations between parties whose goals reflect their own, more narrow interests.

See more on Wanda’s acquisition of AMC and Cieply’s recent account, with Brooks Barnes, of the political strings attached to co-productions in China, via CDT.

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The missing scene was set in Shanghai, when a French hitman (played by Ola Rapace) is shown shooting a Chinese security guard in the elevator lobby of a skyscraper before preparing for an assassination.

Later in the film, in a casino in Macau, Daniel Craig’s Bond questions the story’s femme fatale, Severine (Berenice Marlohe), about whether her tattoo is the result of her being forced into a local prostitution ring at an early age. While the lines remains intact on the soundtrack, the Chinese subtitles suggest the spy is asking her about being coerced into the mob instead.

The film’s Chinese subtitles also fudged the exposition of the back story of the film’s villain, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), who tells Bond how he was handed over to the Chinese authorities while working for the MI6 in Hong Kong. He adds that he suffered immense torture at the hands of his interrogators before attempting to kill himself.

Increasingly, content likely to hurt the feelings of the Chinese people is being removed during production, often in consultation with officials.

Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan, meanwhile, reports that genius inventor Tony Stark will be outsourcing some of his gadgets in the forthcoming Iron Man 3:

In a product-placement deal for Paramount Pictures Corp.’s third Iron Man movie, Robert Downey Jr.’s character Tony Stark will battle his latest nemesis, the Mandarin, using TCL’s products. Some real-world features, such as handheld devices interacting with televisions, will be replicated on-screen.

[…] “I believe our new generation of products are as good as those from Samsung and Apple,” Tomson Li, TCL’s chairman and co-founder, said in an interview at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. “This Iron Man cooperation is very useful for us to promote the TCL brand in the global market, including the U.S. and China.”

To support the marketing effort, Li sealed a deal last week to rename Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles as TCL Chinese Theater, buying naming rights for the cultural landmark along the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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[…] Paramount Pictures just learned the hard way that some things won’t pass muster — like American fighter pilots in dogfights with MIGs. The studio months ago submitted a new 3-D version of “Top Gun” to Chinese censors. The ensuing silence was finally recognized as rejection.

(“Political disapproval?” wondered the Times’ Edward Wong. “Or just good taste?”)

Mr. Cohen’s “Mummy” film, which was shot throughout China in 2007, was a historical fantasy about an evil emperor who is magically resurrected by foreign adventurers in 1946. The script was preapproved by China’s censorship board with only token changes — the emperor’s name had to be fictionalized, for instance. The censors also cautioned that the ancient ruler should not resemble Mao Zedong.

In a 2011 Web post, Robert Cain, a producer and consultant who guides filmmakers through China’s system, described having worked in Shanghai on a romantic comedy that went off script; the director included a take in which an extra, holding a camcorder, pretended to be a theater patron taping a movie on a screen.

The next day, Mr. Cain and others involved with the film were summoned to the office of a Communist Party member who told them the film was being shut down for its “naïve” and “untruthful” portrayal of film piracy. Assuming they had been reported by a spy on their crew, the producers apologized and managed to keep the film on track.

As tricky as dealing with SARFT may be for foreigners, it is all the more so for Chinese filmmakers. Last year, director Lou Ye described the tortuous process of securing approval for Mystery, a film he ultimately disowned in protest.

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Along with men in fedoras and 1930s cars, the costume drama “Grassroots King” has a feature that nearly every Chinese TV show seems to require these days – a Western character.

Kerry Brogan, an actress from Newton, Massachusetts, who plays the lead character’s British girlfriend, is one of dozens of foreign performers on Chinese TV, recruited to appeal to increasingly worldly audiences.

“Our audiences are no longer satisfied to watch foreign characters played by Chinese in a wig,” said Yan Hao, a producer of “Feng Yu,” a TV spy thriller whose cast includes three Western actors.

Producers who used to hire exchange students and other foreign amateurs to supply a dash of non-speaking exotic color to TV shows now put out casting calls as far afield as the United States and Europe for professionals. They appear in productions ranging from war stories to romances and some host TV variety shows.

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The movie has ancient Greek warriors, pirates, underwater kingdoms, a villain called the Demon Mage and mermaids that kill men during sex. There is a sultry Bond girl, too, playing the mermaid queen. Most of the actors are American, and the cameras use 3-D technology.

But the movie, “Empires of the Deep,” is not another fantasy dreamed up by Hollywood. It is being conceived and shot here on the world’s largest studio set, north of Beijing.

This mash-up of “Avatar,” “Gladiator” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” all thrown together in a Chinese hot pot, is the vision of a film-obsessed real estate magnate, Jon Jiang, who says his life mission now is to make movies, video games and theme parks. It is also the boldest effort yet by businessmen here to establish China as a global moviemaking powerhouse, one that can create big-budget English-language spectacles to rival those of Hollywood.

China has been able to dominate one manufacturing industry after another but so far has not made significant inroads into the world’s most glamorous business. If Mr. Jiang, 40, has his way, that will soon change. “Empires of the Deep” could turn out to be a potent demonstration of China’s rising cultural influence and draw international filmmakers here to shoot movies that look and feel like Hollywood projects but that are made with the lower costs of Chinese labor and materials.

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“The fate of this movie in India displays a sharp contrast with some Chinese films,” an article in China Youth Daily said. It mentioned Chinese film maker, Jia Zhangke, who won international acclaim for his film, Still Life. But Jia was was blamed for “trading the sufferings and sorrows of his motherland for the good impression of Westerners”. .. Yang Yuanying, vice director of Film Studies at Beijing Film Academy, compared it with previous Oscar-winnings like Crash and Babel that had strong political and social content.

“Slumdog Millionaire still included such political elements as race and class,” Yang was quoted in the official media as saying.

“Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire has resonated with audiences for having the guts to reveal social realities in India – police using torture to coerce a statement, the deaths of civilians out of religious conflicts, and child abductions and abuses,” the China Youth Daily said. It praised the Indian government has also been praised for allowing its screening in the face of criticism from people who believed that the movie blemished the image of India.

The Slumdog Millionaire movie trailer:

See also past CDT posts on the Chinese Movie Industry.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

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A Hollywood group said Friday it is suing a popular Chinese website over film piracy, expanding a legal battle over use of the Internet by China’s thriving industry in product copying.

The Motion Picture Association accused Xunlei Networking Technology Co. of allowing users of its file-sharing service to download hundreds of movies from other websites despite repeated warnings. The group said it is seeking about US$1 million.

Industry groups say explosive growth in Internet use in China is fuelling unlicensed copying. Pirate websites offer free music, movies, software or games to attract users and make money from advertising or online commerce.

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Hengdian (横店) is Asia’s largest filming location. There is Guangzhou Street, Hong Kong Street, Qin Palace, and other historical or scenic replications, all for filming purposes. “Why not build a Yuanmingyuan?” some local Hengdianese asked.

And that’s the plan underway, to reproduce the grandeur and royal elegance of the old Summer Palace that has been sleeping in ruins since its destruction when the eight allied powers descended upon Beijing a century ago.

That would cost 20 billion yuan, on a plot of land totaling 6,165 mu. The project is projected to be completed by 2013, if it gets going next year as planned. And soon, it attracted plenty of naysayers, more than 60% on a portal survey.

(...)
Read the rest of Most Oppose Zhejiang’s Plan to Build New Yuanmingyuan Palace – China Youth Daily (49 words)

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Global audiences love Chinese films. House of Flying Daggers, Zhang Yimou‘s latest epic drama, grossed US$11 million at the US box office alone. But the films could fare better at home. Given the country’s population of 1.3 billion and per capita GDP of about 70,000 yuan (US$5,600), China’s 2004 box-office figure of 1.5 billion yuan looks meager.

This estimate from the Chinese broadcasting authority breaks down to an average of less than 1 yuan per person spent on movie tickets.

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