China says no to Korean gay king and clown movie

Chinese filmgoers won’t be able to see “The King and the Clown” on the big screen, it would seem.

MyDaily, quoting the Chinese press, reports that China’s media authorities have refused to OK the film for theater release in the Middle Kingdom.  No specific reason was given, but according to MyDaily, the film was expected to run into trouble in China, where film censors might have a tough time accepting the movie’s depiction of a king infatuated with an artist of the same sex, scenes depicting his cruel killings of his retainers, and the plot line of a mad clown undermining official order to bring about a revolution.

Oddly enough, the authorities seem willing to allow sales of “The King and the Clown” on DVD, with one media company starting DVD sales of the film as scheduled.

This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on July 4, 2006 at 12:54 pm, filed under China, East and Central Asia, Korean Culture. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

4 Comments

  1. baduk your flag
    Posted July 4, 2006 at 1:59 pm | Permalink

    If a mere clown can start a revolution.. China is worried.

  2. R. Elgin your flag
    Posted July 4, 2006 at 4:00 pm | Permalink

    The talking cat hit a nerve. Touché :-)

  3. brian your flag
    Posted July 4, 2006 at 7:38 pm | Permalink

    Chinese government’s belated fuss. There have already been tons of pirated The King and the Clown DVDs on the chinese streets.

  4. hardyandtiny your flag
    Posted July 4, 2006 at 8:23 pm | Permalink

    This is huge.

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