Chinese films reel under dominating political censorship

Kolkata, Nov 16 (UNI) The dominance of strict political censorship in China has led the country's film industry to only a stunt growth compared to the world standard, feel well-known Chinese Film maker Li Tong and noted actress Yang Qing.

Speaking to newspersons here today, prior to the screening of Tong's latest movie ''Seven Colours'' in the ongoing 12th Kolkata (International) Film Festival, both regretted that though the wind of freedom was strongly blowing in China in almost all other sectors, the country's Film Industry continued to remain in shakles in the name of censorship at every step of movie making process.

As a result the Chinese film industry had been experiencing a very limited growth in terms of production quality, story lines and other infrastructural facilities including the number and standard of cinema halls across the vast country, they said.

Referring to the present trend of Chinese movies, Mr Tong said since vast majority of film going public in China preferred pure entertainment and wanted to be away from the projection of daily struggling life, most of the 50 odd films being produced every year followed the majority trend.

Claiming that the making of ''Seven Colours'' was a fanciful departure from the ususal Chinese cinema, both Mr Tong and Ms Qing said initially they had to face a lot of opposition from within the industry and from the government circles because of its contents.

However, later the film which was yet to be shown in his own country, was given the clearance for participation in international film festivals including the present one.

Asked whether globalisation had any or no effect in the Chinese film industry, Mr Tong agreed that compared to the pre-globalisation era, the situation was ''far better now'' with more and more films being produced despite the prevalence of strict censorship regime.

About the effect of American movies on Chinese film producers, Mr Tong describing it as ''overwhelming as well as negative'', said particularly the young minds were the most affected as they preferred only cheap entertainment and films marred with violence and sex.

Asked to name other popular Chinese directors whose films had also shot into international fame, Mr Tong said they included Ning Ying and Wang Xioshuai whose films ''Perpetual Motion'' and ''Shanghai Dreams' had already been shown and brought laurels in several international film festivals.

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