International attention shields filmmakers
The Chinese producer and director of Lost in Beijing, which was screened uncensored at the Berlin international film festival, appear to have avoided punishment from the country’s authorities (via).
The fate of director Li Yu and his producer Fang Li had drawn attention after director Lou Ye and producer Nai An were banned from making films for the next five years after submitting Summer Palace to the Cannes Film Festival without government approval.
Lost in Beijing went through a protracted censorship process in the run-up to the Berlinale which saw five edits to the film being demanded before it was finally approved. Ending up on the cutting room floor were a side character, scenes involving dirty streets, prostitutes, gambling, the Chinese national flag, as well as Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. However, Fang ended up screening the uncensored version because he’d run out of time to finish post-production and subtitling of the censored cut.
Fang said in a telephone interview Tuesday both he and director Li haven’t been punished by China’s Film Bureau. He speculated it was because the Chinese government doesn’t want to draw attention to the case.
“If they punish me … everyone’s going to hear about this. The press is going cover this. It just makes them look bad,” he said.
Lost in Beijing is a look at modern-day life in China’s capital centred on a ménage-a-quatre involving a young woman, her boss, her husband and her boss’s wife.
Tuesday 27 Mar 2007 | Paul | China
