Two 12-year-old girls in Zhangzhou, Fujian province have committed suicide, one of whom allegedly died for time-travel, local media reports. Xiaohua, one of the two girls, apparently was motivated to take her own life after being distraught over losing a remote control for the rolling door of her house, and planned her suicide on March 1st. more ›

In an effort to make the cinematic experience more accessible to China's moviegoers, China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) plans to set a maximum price for movie tickets in the near future. more ›

The State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) may move to ban all cut-in advertisements during soap operas on all TV channels, including CCTV. more ›

An “Entertainment Restriction” (限娱令) has been issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) to impose further restrictions on entertainment shows of provincial TV stations, Netease reports. Dating and other 6 kinds of programs will be restricted, and only 2 entertainment shows will be allowed to air during prime time (7:30pm to 10pm) on one provincial satellite channel weekly. more ›

We all know the Chinese government loves to drop the ban hammer, but this is getting ridiculous. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) have reportedly announced to China’s national satellite TV stations that “entertainment” programs will only be allowed to air three times a week and during times other than primetime (5pm-10pm). more ›

We'd heard about it coming for a while, but I suppose it's finally official: Chinese movies and tv shows are now to "limit" the amount of scenes with people smoking in them. Now, dramas with scenes that contain smoking need to keep them "as short as possible." In addition, minors under the age of 18 can't be shown smoking or buying cigarettes, and characters can't flout smoking laws. The orders from SARFT are supposed to help support "China's stance on tobacco control" and stop entertainment from "mislead(ing) the public, especially the youth." A possibly unintended effect: modern Chinese movies and tv shows will just be that much more out of step with real life. more ›

Internet censorship always grabs the spotlight however the PRC censors the film industry pretty thoroughly too. China has no motion picture rating system meaning everything obtains approval on a film-by-film basis and unfortunately the government does not look so favorably on the mainstays of horror pieces, namely violence and the supernatural. more ›

The Russian references were not political in nature. They were innocuous nods to the nationality and spoken language of Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, the villain portrayed by Mickey Rourke. (More information on that character's background here ... be careful, that link features some spoilers.) While most of the censorship consisted of altering the audio track, one scene — during a dinner in a hangar, Vanko asks Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) to fetch his pet cockatoo — appeared to be cut short. more ›

From Forbes: "Chinese movie fans will be able to see the newest Hollywood hit, Star Trek, in movie theaters across the country beginning this weekend. They won't have the same opportunity to see the next blockbuster, Angels & Demons, on the big screen-not Friday (when it opens in the U.S.), not soon, maybe not ever." more ›

• Obama accepts invitations to visit China, Russia [AP] "President Barack Obama has accepted an invitation to visit China later this year. The White House said Wednesday that Obama has accepted an invitation from President Hu Jintao. Obama and Hu met in London ahead of the G20 economic summit."
• Chinese Inmates at Guantánamo Pose a Dilemma [NYTimes] "Mr. Hassan, an intense former college professor, is among some 300 exiles from western China’s Uighur Muslim minority who live peacefully in the Washington area, where the American government has supported their pro-democracy efforts. But while the United States is hosting Mr. Hassan and the others, it has been imprisoning 17 of their countrymen in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba."
• SARFT Tightens Grip on Online Videos [JLM Pacific Epoch] "The State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) issued new regulations for audio-visual content broadcast online and via mobile Internet on March 30. Under the new rules, all films, TV series, cartoons and documentaries transmitted through Internet media must first obtain offline broadcasting licenses."

Sad news for anyone hoping to play the role of laowai doctor #3, China has issued a law effectively banning actors and celebrities from appearing in medical ads. A new notice posted by SARFT bars people without medical qualifications from making health claims in an attempt to cut down on the snake oil sales tactics rampant throughout the country. The restrictions come after an internet hunt exposed at least 12 fake experts selling medicine under different pseudonyms in Shandong alone. Source:Reuters more ›

China has completed the first draft of a long-discussed movie rating system, according to Xinhua. The draft has been submitted to the State Council, though whether the law will be reviewed or approved this year is still up for grabs. more ›

Tang Wei, the “Lust, Caution” star who was maybe-kinda-banned-but-maybe-kinda-not on the mainland has scored her first role since the 2007 film. She will be playing the female romantic lead, opposite Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung, in the upcoming Chinese comedy “Crossing Hennessy.” The movie is about a friendship that develops between two shopkeepers who are set up on a blind date. Source: AP more ›

With 2008 marking fifty years of television drama on CCTV, Danwei shares with us an article from Oriental Outlook on the censoring process that determines just which dramas will be allowed to air on the television network. Danwei points out that "it seems like SARFT is to blame whenever people are upset with film and TV censorship... [but] television stations are ultimately responsible for what they broadcast, so they too employ censors to eliminate objectionable content." CCTV has especially rigorous standards: submitted series must pass an initial screening by the director and executive editor of the Film and TV Department, followed by a detailed review by the Inspection Group. If the series is to be broadcast during prime time, then it needs to be reviewed again following any revisions. While the whole article itself is worth a read, some highlights found by Danwei:
• A ribald folk tune had to be removed from a period piece;
• The mother of a Japanese soldier in a war drama expected him to fight to his death in China, implying that the Japanese people fully supported the war;
• None of the four main characters in a drama about car racing was motivated by the love of the race

The miracle of miracles has happened, and 56.com has come back online, more than a month after it was shut down. While the company had promised a revamp, the website looks pretty much like it did before. Pacific Epoch tried to find out more, but the company is keeping its lips tightly sealed on what exactly transpired within that month. more ›

From Danwei: "But conspicuously missing from the list are the Big Three of the Chinese Youtube clones: Youku.com, Tudou.com and 56.com. Although 56.com has been off line for nearly two weeks after an apparent porblem with the authorities, these three websites have the largest amount of funding of any video websites in China, most of it foreign. By most accounts they are also the most popular video sites in China." more ›

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.

Cross-posted at China Film Journal more ›

Fans of tight-fitting non-branded clothing rejoice! Following the much-heralded invasion of H&M and (the slightly less heralded) C&A, dedicated followers of fashion have the arrival of another Western brand to look forward to, after American Apparel announced that they will be hitting the streets of Shanghai in the next month or so. Location details have not yet been released but the chain is currently negotiating a lease for a downtown store in Shanghai, as well as planning to open in Beijing and Suzhou. more ›

Do films with titles like "Feathers of Dongtan" and "Sounds. Breaths" give you a tingle in your special area? If not, fret not, there's still some time to develop that acquired taste which is promotional films for really-big-Chinese-events. "Vision Shanghai", like "Vision Beijing," is going to feature documentary films by famous directors, thought the names of those directors have yet to be released. However, Shanghai Film Group has announced its next Expo film, a full-length doc by Jia Zhangke. We've been hearing about this intermittently for awhile, and whatever our reservations about promo films, we're still curious to see what Jia's up to with this film.The article says that trailers are being shown on TV soon, but we haven't seen anything new on the video-sharing sites. more ›

It’s shaping up to be a bad week for the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (the catchily acronymed SARFT) – and it's still only Wednesday. Recent events surrounding bans of video sharing site Tudou and then actress Tang Wei (汤唯) seem to suggest that SARFT is slipping into farce. more ›

By Kenneth Tan and David Feng more ›