It seems like Chinese censorship authorities (the SARFT) did not enjoy neither the big success of 'Lust, Caution' censored version in Chinese mainland cinemas nor the even bigger success of the full version on pirated DVDs in China...
Tang Wei, the young and beautiful lead actress of 'Lust, Caution' had just been hired by Unilever as brand ambassador for Pond's. As part of a massive relaunch plan, the brand leveraged her fame by making implicit hints to 'Lust, Caution' erotic atmosphere.
The SARFT released a statement on March 7th that read as follow:
[Chinese regulators objected to any film that ]"disrupts social order" [and vowed to censor films that promote] "pornographic and lewd content, showing promiscuity, rape, prostitution, sexual immorality and perversion" [and other] "wanton values."
The statement was not explicitly mentioning 'Lust, Caution', but a few days later to make things clearer, the SARFT ordered a ban on showing Tang Wei on TV, in cinemas or in any film festival happening in China.
You can still view the Pond's ad here:
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Winter of love part 2
As I postponed and postponed again the writing of this post, the story is not really fresh anymore and has already made it in many western media...
For those who missed it, Edison Chan is a famous singer and actor from Hong Kong who has been bragging a lot for years about being a sex symbol.
With the un-requested help from a computer repair man he proved it.
6 months ago he went to a PC repair store to have his computer fixed. As he recognized Edison Chan, the repairman made a copy of his hard drive, then to discover a file with more than a thousand pictures of Edison photographing his sexual performances with a broad range of famous Hong Kong actresses and singers.
Apparently the repairman kept the file for about 6 months without mentioning it to anybody. But one day, as he was throwing a party at home with friends, he could not resist mentioning the pictures and showing them.
Rapidly pictures got uploaded and a few days later the whole of Hong Kong and a large part of Mainland China got them and circulated them further despite the authorities threatening of legal action against anybody having them on their computer (which is why you won’t see any on this blog).
Because all the girls involved (and they were very involved indeed) were so famous, because there were so many of them and only one man for them all, and because the photos got released bit by bit, this story made the headlines in Hong Kong for about three weeks non stop.
All around Hong Kong pictures got shared and looked at in the work place with colleagues and no kind of embarrassment. As I don’t speak Cantonese I am certainly missing a lot of conversations topics. But it felt like the first time since I arrived two years ago that sex was such an openly discussed subject in a country where the gap with Brazil may be even bigger on this topic than in term of football abilities.
Here are Edison’s official apologies:
Maybe because one of the girl that appeared on the picture was the niece of the biggest entertainment producer in Hong Kong (who is accidentally notorious for his acquaintances with the local mob), Edison has since then decided to move to Los Angeles and pursue his career there…
We wish him all the best.
To me the best part of the whole story was to see hard core sex pictures of stars, taken with their full consent, spreading across China, while the very same girls had been relentlessly promoting no sex before marriage and done their self promotions with too many kitsch pictures holding another kind of little furry animals (those that 5 years old kids are more likely to play with).
May that be the end of Hong Kong infantilism…
For those who missed it, Edison Chan is a famous singer and actor from Hong Kong who has been bragging a lot for years about being a sex symbol.
With the un-requested help from a computer repair man he proved it.
6 months ago he went to a PC repair store to have his computer fixed. As he recognized Edison Chan, the repairman made a copy of his hard drive, then to discover a file with more than a thousand pictures of Edison photographing his sexual performances with a broad range of famous Hong Kong actresses and singers.
Apparently the repairman kept the file for about 6 months without mentioning it to anybody. But one day, as he was throwing a party at home with friends, he could not resist mentioning the pictures and showing them.
Rapidly pictures got uploaded and a few days later the whole of Hong Kong and a large part of Mainland China got them and circulated them further despite the authorities threatening of legal action against anybody having them on their computer (which is why you won’t see any on this blog).
Because all the girls involved (and they were very involved indeed) were so famous, because there were so many of them and only one man for them all, and because the photos got released bit by bit, this story made the headlines in Hong Kong for about three weeks non stop.
All around Hong Kong pictures got shared and looked at in the work place with colleagues and no kind of embarrassment. As I don’t speak Cantonese I am certainly missing a lot of conversations topics. But it felt like the first time since I arrived two years ago that sex was such an openly discussed subject in a country where the gap with Brazil may be even bigger on this topic than in term of football abilities.
Here are Edison’s official apologies:
Maybe because one of the girl that appeared on the picture was the niece of the biggest entertainment producer in Hong Kong (who is accidentally notorious for his acquaintances with the local mob), Edison has since then decided to move to Los Angeles and pursue his career there…
We wish him all the best.
To me the best part of the whole story was to see hard core sex pictures of stars, taken with their full consent, spreading across China, while the very same girls had been relentlessly promoting no sex before marriage and done their self promotions with too many kitsch pictures holding another kind of little furry animals (those that 5 years old kids are more likely to play with).
May that be the end of Hong Kong infantilism…
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