“I had always believed that film was banned in China!”
Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia wrote on Twitter, which is not accessible to most Chinese because of government Internet controls: “This great film couldn’t be any more appropriate for our current situation. Dictators, prisons, secret police, media control, riots, getting rid of ‘heretics’ … fear, evasion, challenging lies, overcoming fear, resistance, overthrowing tyranny … China’s dictators and its citizens also have this relationship.”
China’s authoritarian government strictly controls print media, television and radio. Censors also monitor social media sites including Weibo. Programs have to be approved by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, but people with knowledge of the industry say CCTV, the only company with a nationwide broadcast license, is entitled to make its own censorship decisions when showing a foreign movie.
“It is already broadcast. It is no big deal,” said a woman who answered the phone at movie channel CCTV-6. “We also didn’t anticipate such a big reaction.”
Blowback
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Maybe he is, or he’ll meet Obama in the middle, as the latter pushes for Chinese gov’t.
In any event, don’t believe either. It’s all deceiving and distracting.
The Chinese masters w/b the most horrific the world has ever had.
Schadenfreude on December 20, 2012 at 4:48 PM
“V for Vendetta” is not a great film. It is thinly-veiled, anti-Bush, anti-Fox News propaganda. Nothing more, nothing less.
steebo77 on December 20, 2012 at 4:50 PM
True democracy will be at hand when they show ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?‘
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on December 20, 2012 at 4:50 PM
It might soon be forbidden in AmeriKa.
Schadenfreude on December 20, 2012 at 4:52 PM
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” – V for Vendetta
RedRobin145 on December 20, 2012 at 5:10 PM
I don’t agree.
The makers of the film might have imagined the film would have that effect, but it really wouldn’t resonate with American audiences that way, especially viewed now, four years after Bush left office.
The setting of the film is in Britain, and it turns Guy Fawkes, a person who–until this makeover–was ritually mocked every November for his failed attack on Parliament (against anti-Catholic repression) into a heroic figure. That inversion would be obvious to British viewers who would see this as a pretty straightforward anti-establishment message.
And at it’s core, that’s what it is. As a libertarian conservative, I really don’t have much problem with the film and think it has an overall net positive message in that the core message is essentially anti-statist.
Now, why the occupy crowd–who always agitate for more government–finds this figure inspiring is harder to explain.
Nessuno on December 20, 2012 at 5:30 PM
I wholeheartedly disagree. I think it is a great film.
While, I also felt at the time of it’s release that it had an anti-Bush undertone, I also think it would be equally applicable to an anti-Obama tone, if not even moreso. It’s anti-big-government more than anything else. Honestly, I believe the leftist morons that idolize the movie, thinking that it supports their leftist idealism, really don’t understand the movie at all.
The politics aside, what makes it a great film for me is Hugo Weaving’s performance as V. He does not show his face once throughout the entire film, so he can relay none of the character’s emotions through facial expression. And yet through his body language and his voice he manages to convey the full range of emotion of the character in great depth. I actually think it’s one of the most incredible acting performances I have ever seen.
gravityman on December 20, 2012 at 5:32 PM
That’s where I stopped reading.
logis on December 20, 2012 at 5:34 PM
Most likely someone at CCTV is pushing the envelope. I have a hard time believing the communist party leadership would approve of this movie if they knew what was in it no matter what the intent of the movie was in the west.
Movies that call for the overthrowing of authoritarian single party governments I would think does not help the CCP who is a authoritarian single party government.
William Eaton on December 20, 2012 at 5:51 PM