Jiang Wen's blockbuster "Let the Bullets Fly," with a similar style of black humor and violence, attracted crowds of Chinese viewers to cinemas, making more than 600 million yuan (US$96.8 million) at box offices. However, many careless parents brought their children into theaters -- who often ended up in tears.
One film critic under the pseudonym of "Tübingen Carpenter" said, "If someone told you 'Django Unchained' would be showing its almost full-on version in China, it would not be a good thing. Who would then protect our underage audience?"
But just on April 9, the China's Film Director Guild held its annual forum. Director Li Shaohong said she was not optimistic about launching a rating system in a few years. "The Western film industry has a very mature system from shooting to showing to supervision. But China just doesn't want anything inappropriate for showing and this traditional thinking cannot be changed overnight." She said that if China's film industry doesn't change its overall system, it will be more troublesome to set up a rating system.
Besides the cut and adjustments, Hollywood also finds other ways to market its films and please audiences in China, the second largest film market in the world.
Recent reports have stated several blockbusters such as "Iron Man 3," "Transformers 4" and "World War Z" will have their own Chinese versions specifically edited for this market.
The "Iron Man 3" Chinese special version will feature actress Fan Bingbing, who will not appear in other versions of the film screened around the world. Michael Bay also said Chinese actors will have ten minutes on-screen time in "Transformers 4," but he will cut those scenes for the U.S. and international versions.
Photo story: Nostalgia in a small telephone booth
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