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China is also destroying the movie industry as well. They are too large of a market not to cater to and have a rigorous set of requirements for what's acceptabl

China is also destroying the movie industry as well. They are too large of a market not to cater to and have a rigorous set of requirements for what's acceptable in a film. Some things you would expect, like don't mention Taiwan, or being critical of China. There's some weird stuff too, like no "time travel" and no "ghosts".

130e13a 4y ago
i wouldn't say outright destroying, but definitely distorting
BrianOnHN 4y ago
What's the potential threat in the concept of time-travel?
- JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
  We would go back and help Chang Kai-Shek harder of course. I wonder what a world where he won would look like?
  - BrianOnHN 4y ago
    I'm sure they're not afraid of it becoming a real technology. So, what's the "danger" in the concept alone? I'm assuming they have a "rational" explanation behind the decision. What is it?
    - echelon 4y ago
      https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/china-bans-time-travel-films-177801/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/china-ba...
      - henriquecm8 4y ago
        What if the story takes place in a different universe, with no relation with our history?
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - jfengel 4y ago
        That is surreal. It's also dated 2011; is this a policy they're continuing? Did it ever apply to imported movies?
        wodenokoto 4y ago
        It’s hard to keep up with. I watched a video essay on YouTube on why Chinese horro movies are so bad and the main reason, it argued, was that the rules for what you can and cannot show changes so quickly that you want to get your movie out fast in fear of your plot device becoming banned before release
      - BrianOnHN 4y ago
        > the fantasy of time travel – which potentially gives the individual the freedom to reorder reality – conflicts with politically correct thought I think that excerpt from the article answers my question.
zionic 4y ago
They also delete black actors from movie posters.
- sbf501 4y ago
  If you're referring to Fin, that was BS. He even got his own poster with him as large as life. https://www.quora.com/In-The-Force-Awakens-poster-is-making-Finn-less-prominent-lending-credence-to-the-claim-that-Chinese-viewers-are-averse-to-non-white-foreign-characters?share=1 https://www.quora.com/In-The-Force-Awakens-poster-is-making-...
  - karpierz 4y ago
    They took the black character off of the main movie poster, and created a separate poster just for him?
    - sbf501 4y ago
      How about you read the link I provided before replying? Spoiler: They didn't remove him from the main poster.
      - zionic 4y ago
        How about you travel China. Your fabricated link doesn’t counter my real life experience.
  - zionic 4y ago
    >here’s my western source claiming Chinese totally don’t discriminate I’ve traveled extensively in China. From my own personal experience they are extremely racist. The difference is night and day, you cross the “border” at the airport and the ads all become incredibly pale. Hong Kong and tier-1 China are basically everything you’d imagine in a white supremacists wet dream, but Asian. They don’t possess any concept of white guilt, they have no cultural shame and are not susceptible to identity politics. They are “friendly supremacist”. They will smile in your face producing xxx,xxx,xxx widget per year while hating your guts.
daenz 4y ago
>no time travel According to this Quora post, it doesn't appear to be the case[0] 0. https://www.quora.com/Why-are-movies-about-time-travel-banned-in-China https://www.quora.com/Why-are-movies-about-time-travel-banne...
- Hellion 4y ago
  It’s complicated. AFAIK there is no official ban. It’s not so much that time travel itself is banned, it’s that the Chinese government has a bunch of rules that make time travel movies impossible to execute. For example, the Chinese government wishes to protect the dignity and honor of historical culture. And that means, any movie made of those time periods must fundamentally be serious. Also, it’s possible that whoever is running the movie review board personally thinks time travel is “too silly”.
voisin 4y ago
> They are too large of a market not to cater to Why? Seems the market was plenty big enough prior to their ascendancy.
- bidirectional 4y ago
  Obviously films can be produced without aiming to enter the Chinese market, but the highest budgets will go to the films which can, and they'll have higher marketing budgets and so on.
- Sparkle-san 4y ago
  China's middle class was about 3% of its population in 2000. It's now around 50% of its population. The number of people there able to afford going to the movies is substantially higher now.
  - tines 4y ago
    Why is this being downvoted?
    - xeromal 4y ago
      How can you tell when something is being downvoted?
      - jamiek88 4y ago
        it goes grey. It was probably upvoted again (as happens a lot when people comment on downvotes) by the time you found the comment.
        xeromal 4y ago
        Thanks for the info!
      - thaumasiotes 4y ago
        You can't, but you can tell when the number of downvotes exceeds the number of upvotes.
jimbokun 4y ago
Was End Game (with it's time travel plot) not released in China? Seems like I would have heard about that.
mason55 4y ago
> China is also destroying the movie industry as well. China may be changing the "Summer Blockbuster" segment of the industry but it's quite the stretch to say they are destroying the whole thing. Plenty of great movies still come out every year. There's plenty of argument that the Academy Awards aren't necessarily the best movies but even if you look at the movies represented this year, there were a lot of good ones and I don't think any of them were influenced by China. Obviously you can't prove it unless the filmmakers confirm it, but certainly there are a lot of movies with themes that would be unacceptable to Chinese censors. Maybe the plot of "Transformers 7" isn't as good as it could have been without Chinese influence but as long as movies like "The Power of the Dog" (or "Licorice Pizza" or "Belfast" or "Flee" if animation is more up your alley or ... take your pick) are coming out, I'd say the industry is doing ok.
int_19h 4y ago
Wasn't it, rather, "no undead"?
circlefavshape 4y ago
IMO sci-fi movies have been completely spoiled by time travel and multiverses. If I was running the world I'd ban time travel too

130e13a 4y ago

i wouldn't say outright destroying, but definitely distorting

BrianOnHN 4y ago

What's the potential threat in the concept of time-travel?

JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
We would go back and help Chang Kai-Shek harder of course. I wonder what a world where he won would look like?
- BrianOnHN 4y ago
  I'm sure they're not afraid of it becoming a real technology. So, what's the "danger" in the concept alone? I'm assuming they have a "rational" explanation behind the decision. What is it?
  - echelon 4y ago
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/china-bans-time-travel-films-177801/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/china-ba...
    - henriquecm8 4y ago
      What if the story takes place in a different universe, with no relation with our history?
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
    - jfengel 4y ago
      That is surreal. It's also dated 2011; is this a policy they're continuing? Did it ever apply to imported movies?
      - wodenokoto 4y ago
        It’s hard to keep up with. I watched a video essay on YouTube on why Chinese horro movies are so bad and the main reason, it argued, was that the rules for what you can and cannot show changes so quickly that you want to get your movie out fast in fear of your plot device becoming banned before release
    - BrianOnHN 4y ago
      > the fantasy of time travel – which potentially gives the individual the freedom to reorder reality – conflicts with politically correct thought I think that excerpt from the article answers my question.

zionic 4y ago

They also delete black actors from movie posters.

sbf501 4y ago
If you're referring to Fin, that was BS. He even got his own poster with him as large as life. https://www.quora.com/In-The-Force-Awakens-poster-is-making-Finn-less-prominent-lending-credence-to-the-claim-that-Chinese-viewers-are-averse-to-non-white-foreign-characters?share=1 https://www.quora.com/In-The-Force-Awakens-poster-is-making-...
- karpierz 4y ago
  They took the black character off of the main movie poster, and created a separate poster just for him?
  - sbf501 4y ago
    How about you read the link I provided before replying? Spoiler: They didn't remove him from the main poster.
    - zionic 4y ago
      How about you travel China. Your fabricated link doesn’t counter my real life experience.
- zionic 4y ago
  >here’s my western source claiming Chinese totally don’t discriminate I’ve traveled extensively in China. From my own personal experience they are extremely racist. The difference is night and day, you cross the “border” at the airport and the ads all become incredibly pale. Hong Kong and tier-1 China are basically everything you’d imagine in a white supremacists wet dream, but Asian. They don’t possess any concept of white guilt, they have no cultural shame and are not susceptible to identity politics. They are “friendly supremacist”. They will smile in your face producing xxx,xxx,xxx widget per year while hating your guts.

daenz 4y ago

>no time travel According to this Quora post, it doesn't appear to be the case[0] 0. https://www.quora.com/Why-are-movies-about-time-travel-banned-in-China https://www.quora.com/Why-are-movies-about-time-travel-banne...

Hellion 4y ago
It’s complicated. AFAIK there is no official ban. It’s not so much that time travel itself is banned, it’s that the Chinese government has a bunch of rules that make time travel movies impossible to execute. For example, the Chinese government wishes to protect the dignity and honor of historical culture. And that means, any movie made of those time periods must fundamentally be serious. Also, it’s possible that whoever is running the movie review board personally thinks time travel is “too silly”.

voisin 4y ago

> They are too large of a market not to cater to Why? Seems the market was plenty big enough prior to their ascendancy.

bidirectional 4y ago
Obviously films can be produced without aiming to enter the Chinese market, but the highest budgets will go to the films which can, and they'll have higher marketing budgets and so on.
Sparkle-san 4y ago
China's middle class was about 3% of its population in 2000. It's now around 50% of its population. The number of people there able to afford going to the movies is substantially higher now.
- tines 4y ago
  Why is this being downvoted?
  - xeromal 4y ago
    How can you tell when something is being downvoted?
    - jamiek88 4y ago
      it goes grey. It was probably upvoted again (as happens a lot when people comment on downvotes) by the time you found the comment.
      - xeromal 4y ago
        Thanks for the info!
    - thaumasiotes 4y ago
      You can't, but you can tell when the number of downvotes exceeds the number of upvotes.

jimbokun 4y ago

Was End Game (with it's time travel plot) not released in China? Seems like I would have heard about that.

mason55 4y ago

> China is also destroying the movie industry as well. China may be changing the "Summer Blockbuster" segment of the industry but it's quite the stretch to say they are destroying the whole thing. Plenty of great movies still come out every year. There's plenty of argument that the Academy Awards aren't necessarily the best movies but even if you look at the movies represented this year, there were a lot of good ones and I don't think any of them were influenced by China. Obviously you can't prove it unless the filmmakers confirm it, but certainly there are a lot of movies with themes that would be unacceptable to Chinese censors. Maybe the plot of "Transformers 7" isn't as good as it could have been without Chinese influence but as long as movies like "The Power of the Dog" (or "Licorice Pizza" or "Belfast" or "Flee" if animation is more up your alley or ... take your pick) are coming out, I'd say the industry is doing ok.

int_19h 4y ago

Wasn't it, rather, "no undead"?

circlefavshape 4y ago

IMO sci-fi movies have been completely spoiled by time travel and multiverses. If I was running the world I'd ban time travel too