June 20, 2008
Kung Fu Panda inspires wrath. Really?
On the list of things that seriously really piss us off children’s movies, Americanized kung fu and animated pandas don’t exactly play a starring role. In fact, it’s probably fair to say they don’t even make a cameo. Unfortunately for artist Zhao Bandi (赵半狄), all these things seem to be at the top of his list, and all these things are clearly evident in DreamWorks’ new film Kung Fu Panda. To display his righteous outrage, Zhao rallied his (only?) two friends and fellow panda advocates for a protest outside the Beijing State Administration of Radio Film and Television offices, brandishing a petition calling for the film’s release to be canceled. Choice words from the protest, courtesy of WSJ Blogs: “If the Hollywood film ‘Kung Fu Panda’ is released on Jun. 20, it will be just like snatching the necklaces and watches from the corpses of disaster victims.” Um, ok. How so?
Among the main gripes with the film: Hollywood is exploiting China’s “national treasure” (its pandas) and its martial arts; the film is made by Dreamworks, a studio founded by Steven Spielberg (who withdrew from his role as an adviser to the Beijing Olympics earlier this year over concerns about China’s role in Sudan); and more broadly, it’s a Hollywood film, and Hollywood is the place that produced Sharon Stone, reviled in China for her Cannes comments about Tibet, the Sichuan earthquake and karma.After meeting with SARFT administrators, Zhao conceded he would accept the film’s release (though not in earthquake-affected areas, where an animated troop of bumbling animals might provoke too strong an emotional reaction).
Related links:
Zhao’s blog
Great rant on the subject from China Media Blog
Photo from hecaitou.net
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Presumably though, the panda wins in the end?
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of course,the panda wins in the end,why not?
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Zhao Bandi? another crazy nutcase.
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Wouldn't it be funny if the government was actually supporting wing-nuts like this so that we could all have a good laugh, and then pay less attention as the Net Nanny's noose gets tighter?
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You can always find some people with extreme views in China since they have 1.3B people. So, it is not surprising to see someone who wants to boycott the lovely movie. What annoyed many Chinese is that Spielberg criticized China for the Darfur issue. Even with the Sweden-based SIPRI report, China only accounts 8% of weapons imported into Sudan (www.sipri.org/contents/armstrad/PR_AT_data_2007.html/view?searchterm=darfur). USA, Russia, Germany, France and UK are the top 5 largest arms exporters (accounts 90% of the total) on the earth between 2000 and 2007 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry). Why did Spielberg ignore the heavy weights and focused on China for the whole issue?
The movie is great, but Spielberg is a hypocrite.
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I forgot to mention that Spielberg is the major owner of DreamWorks.
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Yeah, wikipedia is a great source. How about China's open supply of nukes to Pakistan, NK, Lybia and Iran?
And the Khartoum gov't doesn't need any more help killing black Africans, so why is China practically giving away tanks and fighter-bombers? Guns and PLA spec ops advisors to keep Zimbabwe "harmonious"? But China really takes the humanitarian cake by solely supporting NK for the past 30 years.
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Kungfu Panda is not very good, maybe kids will like it but it's so sentimental and predictable.
But - what I'm interested in is the often heard 'the kung fu' (or kung fu movie) is westernised or not chinese etc criticism.
The truth of the matter is that mainland China, and also the HK film industry of late is dominated by modern wushu sports kung fu and wirefu to the point of no longer resembmling either Chinese Kungfu of old or the values it espoused. It was basically on the way out once the Shaw Studios stopped making kung fu pics in 1985.
I like Zhang Yimou films, but all that talk of Crouching Tiger not being 'Chinese' and then Hero being made almost in direct riposte was ludicrous. Ang Lee is Chinese and so were all the cast, crew and locations and the composer. It was a good balance of all the genre's traditions and when it used wires or acrobatics it was directly related to the characters or themes. It won me over despite being a hardcore Shaw style fan.
Hero, depsite being flash looking, was far away from Ang Lee's movie. House of the Flying Daggers was an improvement on Hero.
The criticism basically stems from a group of right wing nationalists who want to bang on about what's Chinese or not - and in the case of the history of Kung Fu and the movies, they seem to be ignorant of most of it.
Also, an American made film, in English about a panda doing kung fu - seems 'americanized', what does he even mean beyond stating the obvious.
And, i'm not Chinese or American - but photographs of Furong jiejie in panda inspired get up gives you bragging rights over dreamworks? ... uh, yes, that's right.
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I also don't get why anyone would complain about this. It is no secret that Hollywood distorts serious themes, especially when the movies in question are meant to be shown to children.
One example: I have read Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. After seeing the previews of the Disney movie, I instantly felt an intense disgust at the many gross departures from the story. The difference was so evident that I did not need to view the film to pass judgement. It is an Americanised version of a French classic that combines Disney "magic" with dumbed-down dialogue. Did I march through the streets? No. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "What crap! I, at least, won't go see it."
Furthermore, the primary audience is American children, not Chinese ones. Did Universal remake The Mummy to impress the Egyptians? Hardly! Why should Zhao think that Dreamworks should make its Panda movie to satisfy him? And why should Spielberg have to respect pandas as a "national image" of China? Last I checked, pandas were not a trademark. Anyone can use the "panda" brand.
Zhao is being hypersensitive about "art". I use the word generally to describe "cinema", and not to imply that Kung Fu Panda is fine art, which it isn't. Such sensitivity is a very bad trait for an artist.