Opinion / Raymond Zhou
Spotlight on real China is not offensive
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-05-20 06:18
While a religious debate swirls around "The Da Vinci Code" as the movie
premieres worldwide, another controversy surrounding another summer
blockbuster has opened a can of worms in China, which may put in peril
its fate in the market where the story is partly set.
"Mission: Impossible III" is under special scrutiny from the authorities
because some media outlets have reported that it contains scenes that
"tarnish the image of Shanghai."
That sounds weird. Hollywood filmmakers are bending backwards to enter
the Chinese market, and who in his or her right mind would deliberately
offend the audiences they are trying so hard to woo? It simply defies
logic.
The Tom Cruise flick features three major locations, Shanghai being one
of them. About 20 per cent of the scenes were shot in the Chinese
metropolis, using several landmark buildings as backdrops or sites of
action sequences.
The reportedly "offensive" scene catches traditional Shanghai homes
hanging laundry outside the window.
What's so offensive about it, I wonder.
Doesn't Shanghai, or any other Chinese city, have such sights? Unless one
isolates oneself in the kind of apartment buildings with an enclosed
balcony, these are commonplace in traditional low-rises.
Does it reflect badly on a city?
I don't think one should be ashamed of hanging out cleaned-up laundry.
Unless you live in a dry place like Beijing, you'd have to dry it in the
open or buy a dryer, which is still rare in China. Sure, those who live
in such quarters are not as well off as residents of brand new and
squeaky-clean apartment buildings, the practice is fundamentally
different from spitting or jaywalking. It's something people do to keep
hygienic, for God's sake.
This reminds me of the early 1980s when some of my countrymen were
affronted when foreigners photographed Beijing's hutong.
"It's sickening you would take interest in this kind of dilapidated
housing and choose to ignore the high-rises," they argued.
Suffice to say, it was difficult to convince them that the concrete boxes
erected during that time were aesthetically unpleasing, and the hutong,
rundown as they were from decades of neglect, had a quiet beauty that we,
as insiders, were blind to.
The hypersensitivity toward how Chinese are portrayed in foreign films is
rooted in a thinly veiled inferiority complex. Yes, there are movies that
put us in a bad light, and yes, there are certain elements in foreign
movies that may not suit our audiences.
But if we hold every foreign production to the unique yardstick of a
tourism publicity film, pretty soon people will avoid us and there will
be no cinematic representation of our city on the international screen.
There is a possibility that some people think this is a good way of
"driving away" foreign competition in Chinese cinema. If this is true,
they are way too naive.
First of all, there is a quota for the annual number of foreign imports.
If one film is cancelled, there will be a replacement.
Second, when the film in question turns into a hot potato and needs
"re-evaluation," its scheduled release date is changed. When that
happens, the domestic distributor, who has invested millions in promoting
it, may lose much of the value of paid publicity. The movie will also
lose momentum and yield a significant portion of the market to
bootleggers.
Worse yet, the movie, once approved again, may take another opening slot,
which is usually planned in advance by some domestic release. That
Chinese film, according to one of the biggest distributors in China, will
lose all of its investment in marketing, since now it will unexpectedly
face a Hollywood juggernaut.
About the only party who will benefit from this kind of hullabaloo are
the movie pirates, who do not pay royalties to the filmmakers or taxes to
the state coffer.
Email: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 05/20/2006 page4)
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