Twenty-eight year old actress Tang Wei has been banned from all Chinese media because of the sexual nature of a character she played in Ang Lee’s latest film, Lust, Caution. This is just the latest of bizarre censorship moves by the communist government. The Chinese government’s lock down on the internet is already legendary news fodder.
The State Administration of Radio, Film & Television, the Chinese government agency that polices all electronic & print media made the stunning announcement last Saturday, yanked a television commercial for a skin care product that featured Ms. Wei and adviced the producers of an awards show to strike her from their list of guests.
None of the other artists involved in the film were banned, Director Ang Lee, or the film’s stars Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Joan Chen & Lee-Hom Wang. SARFT prohibits an scenes considered lewd or pornographic, any material that shows “promiscuous acts, rape, prostitution, sexual intercourse, sexual perversity, masturbation and male/female sexual organs and other private parts”. Now, I have not seen the film, which was released last September (I thought it looked dull, see the trailer for yourself here), Which is described as an erotic thriller, but I imagine Tang Wei did not perform any objectionable scenes alone.
A love scene, or two - it’s hard to tell, between Tang Wei and Tony Leung is evident from the trailer. No bans announced on Tony Leung. In fact this would be the third time, that I am aware of, that Tony Leung has done a sexually charge movie. One of my favorite films, Wong Kar Wei's In The Mood For Love, featured Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk as neighbors whose spouses are having an affair and eventually hook up themselves.
The sequel, 2046, featured Tony Leung bedding a whole slew of women including (quite graphically) Zhang ZiYi. Who has yet to make a movie that she doesn’t get laid in. That is not to be misconstrued as a complaint, FYI.
In fact plenty of other Chinese actresses in films past have been in sexual roles. Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, Vivian Wu to name but a few, and have not incurred the wrath of their nation’s government as Tang Wei has. The government has waited in the past to throw the hammer down on a film that it has deemed offensive, so that in itself is not too unusual. I guess I will have to see the movie after all.
This is extremely puzzling. Ang Lee became a national treasure after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But perhaps part of that luster was lost with Brokeback Mountain. Still, looking at this film itself, the highest grossing in film in China, you would have to think the Chinese government would love it.
It deals with the Japanese invasion of Shanghai during World War II and a group of young actors who plot to assassinate a powerful Chinese traitor (Tony Leung) by using one of their own Tang Wei, who becomes his mistress for the sole purpose of killing him. Despite what they may say, the Chinese government is not big on Japan, who still won’t own up to the Nanking Massacres during WWII and whose leaders still visit Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese war criminals are enshrined amongst true Japanese heroes.
In the past the Chinese government has edited offending scenes from movies before their release. Why wait and then only ban the newcomer Tang Wei and not popular leading man, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who presumably is in every offending scene with Wei? Why they didn’t opt to simply cut out the scenes instead of electing to destroy a young woman’s career is a sad, unfortunate mystery that only the SARFT can answer.
Source: Reuters.
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