Jason Lee/Reuters
A woman looked at a poster for the film “Django Unchained” on Thursday outside a theater in Beijing.
Published: April 11, 2013
HONG KONG — The American film “Django Unchained” was abruptly pulled from theaters in China on Thursday, its opening day, a surprising move that underscored the fragility of Hollywood’s evolving relationship with the Chinese movie industry.
No reason was given for the decision to suspend “Django Unchained,” which was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and won two Oscars in February. The move comes after some scenes were reported to have been edited to conform with the wishes of Chinese censors.
Workers at Beijing theaters said the film, which tells a bloody revenge story set in America’s pre-Civil War South, had been pulled because of unspecified technical problems.
But Mr. Tarantino’s representatives and financial backers in Los Angeles and New York on Thursday were still scrambling to learn what had gone wrong, and looking for a way to reopen their movie in what has become the world’s second-largest film market, after the United States. American film studios are seeking increased access to the vast new audience in China as a way to shore up their business, but have often been frustrated by Chinese laws, customs and tastes.
“We regret that ‘Django Unchained’ has been removed from theaters and are working with the Chinese authorities to determine whether the film can be rescheduled,” Steve Elzer, a spokesman for Sony Pictures Entertainment, which released the film, said in a statement. Mr. Elzer declined to discuss possible reasons for the cancellation.
“Django Unchained” was to have made its debut after weeks of heavy promotion. News reports have said that some of the film’s graphic violence was edited to make it acceptable to state censors, including altering the color of fake blood in violent scenes and limiting how far the blood splattered.
Such revisions are becoming increasingly common before American films are shown in China, with American filmmakers adhering to the demands of Chinese censors.
Sony’s indication that “Django Unchained” may be rescheduled suggested some relatively narrow problem, rather than broad objections to the movie’s celebration of rebellion.
The film focuses on a slave, Django, and a bounty hunter who try to outsmart a particularly brutal slave owner.
Before the film’s planned opening, the Chinese media quoted a Sony Pictures official who described the changes made to appease censors and suggested that Mr. Tarantino had played a role in the changes.
“What we call bloodshed and violence is just a means of serving the purpose of the film, and these slight adjustments will not affect the basic quality of the film — such as turning the blood to a darker color, or lowering the height of the splatter of blood,” Zhang Miao, director of Sony Pictures’ Chinese branch, told Southern Metropolis Daily. “Quentin knew how to adjust that, and it’s necessary that he is the one to do it. You can give him suggestions, but it must be him.”
Mr. Tarantino, whose films are known for their no-holds-barred depictions of gory violence, has not commented on reports that he toned the film down for Chinese censors.
His agents at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment declined on Thursday to discuss the film’s withdrawal.
Chinese media and film blogs were filled with speculation that the movie had been withdrawn because state censors somehow missed a brief scene with nudity. That explanation seemed unlikely, however, given the careful vetting the film is said to have undergone before it was approved for release.
Whatever the reason, the last-minute nature of the decision was surprising. Potential problems with Chinese censors are usually identified and addressed long before the film’s opening.
“Django Unchained” is the first of Mr. Tarantino’s violent movies to be cleared for distribution in Chinese theaters, though parts of his “Kill Bill” movies were filmed in Beijing.
Its sudden disappearance from theaters across the country prompted consternation even among some of the Chinese government’s staunchest defenders.
Hu Xijin, editor in chief of Global Times, a state-run newspaper known for its nationalistic posture, cast the abrupt suspension of the film as a “strange decision” made by government agencies full of nervous officials.
“The harm that this action itself brings to politics far exceeds the harm that would have been caused by not censoring the ‘offensive scene,’ ” he wrote on his microblog.
At one Beijing movie theater, an employee said “Django Unchained” was shown after midnight Thursday to about 32 people. Another worker said that the movie had been stopped later for technical reasons, adding, “There’s probably something in the film that’s not up to standard.”
The openings of Chinese films are sometimes postponed because of last-minute wrangling between filmmakers and censors, and a film’s run in the theaters can sometimes be cut short if the authorities are worried about audience reaction. But it is extremely unusual for a prominent foreign movie to be pulled on opening day after screenings have begun.
“This is such a big deal,” said Jiang Guangchao, an executive with Beijing’s New Film Association, one of China’s most important film distribution and theater chain companies, explaining why he could not comment or refer questions to colleagues.
But Gao Jun, the former president of the company, which had been scheduled to show “Django Unchained” in its theaters, played down the suspension. “This is a very minor incident,” he said. “It’s just that Hollywood films aren’t that popular in China right now. People prefer to watch Chinese made films — they’re more familiar.”
In the past, Hollywood executives have complained that China’s film officials — part of the powerful State Administration of Radio, Film and Television — impose standards erratically, and sometimes without explanation.
“The Karate Kid” and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” both of which were shot in China, for instance, encountered objections after their scripts had already been approved by censors.
Still, American moviemakers have increasingly been willing to bend over backward in their efforts to meet Chinese standards, even allowing government officials onto movie sets to monitor the filming, as was the case with Disney and Marvel’s “Iron Man 3.”
China does not have a movie ratings system like those in the United States or Europe that would give viewers a chance to judge whether a film is too violent for children or teenagers. It relies instead on the brute force of censorship: movies and television shows either have scenes excised or are banned entirely.
Gerry Mullany reported from Hong Kong and Michael Cieply from New York. Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong. Amy Qin and Sue-Lin Wong contributed research from Beijing.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 11, 2013
An earlier version of this article misstated the number of moviegoers who saw a screening of “Django Unchained” at a Beijing movie theater, and misspelled the surname of a contributor. The movie was shown to about 32 people, not 150, and Amy Qin — not Quin — contributed research from Beijing.
