Moviegoers in China are now getting a dose of state propaganda to go with their popcorn — whether they like it or not.
Beginning July 1, Beijing's media regulators began requiring all Chinese cinemas to air one of four short propaganda videos before every film screened in the country.
The spots, roughly three minutes in length, espouse all of the Chinese Communist Party's usual shibboleths, such as "core socialist values" and President Xi Jinping's vision of “the Chinese dream.” To help the socialist medicine go down smooth, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, which produced the...
Beginning July 1, Beijing's media regulators began requiring all Chinese cinemas to air one of four short propaganda videos before every film screened in the country.
The spots, roughly three minutes in length, espouse all of the Chinese Communist Party's usual shibboleths, such as "core socialist values" and President Xi Jinping's vision of “the Chinese dream.” To help the socialist medicine go down smooth, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, which produced the...
- 7/7/2017
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Thanks to Jia Zhangke's new film, we will probably get an updated statement, for today, about the tricky matter that Jacques Rivette once closed while discussing Mizoguchi's cinema. The question of understanding (or not) a film's language and its cultural context."What is beyond doubt is that Mizoguchi's art is based on the play of personal genius within the context of a dramatic tradition. But will wanting to approach it in terms of the national culture and to find it above all such great universal values make us any the wiser? That men are men wherever they may be is something we might have predicted; to be surprised by it only tells us something about ourselves." (translation by Liz Heron)If the question stands at the center of Jia's film, the attempted answer may well be larger than China. In this film where Jia's personal filmic geography now includes territories...
- 5/20/2015
- by Marie-Pierre Duhamel
- MUBI
The Iron Ministry
Directed by J.P. Sniadecki
USA, 2014
The first few minutes of The Iron Ministry are a black screen overlaid with the sound of train machinery. The darkness goes on long enough that some patrons were muttering over whether or not the picture was being projected correctly. Gradually, however, images come into view, though hazy and out of focus; hard to identify. The gears and bellows of the train pulsate and throb. They don’t look mechanical. It looks like the workings of grey, diseased organs. The first sign of human activity is a closeup of cigarette butts sloshing in a water-filled nook. And then people themselves finally enter the picture, mites living in the larger host body of the train.
China has an extensive railway network, and it’s only spiderwebbed outwards in recent years, connecting the eastern part of the country to the remote mines of Tibet,...
Directed by J.P. Sniadecki
USA, 2014
The first few minutes of The Iron Ministry are a black screen overlaid with the sound of train machinery. The darkness goes on long enough that some patrons were muttering over whether or not the picture was being projected correctly. Gradually, however, images come into view, though hazy and out of focus; hard to identify. The gears and bellows of the train pulsate and throb. They don’t look mechanical. It looks like the workings of grey, diseased organs. The first sign of human activity is a closeup of cigarette butts sloshing in a water-filled nook. And then people themselves finally enter the picture, mites living in the larger host body of the train.
China has an extensive railway network, and it’s only spiderwebbed outwards in recent years, connecting the eastern part of the country to the remote mines of Tibet,...
- 11/9/2014
- by Dan Schindel
- SoundOnSight
Beijing – Communist Party propaganda chief Liu Qibao hailed the rapid rise of the country’s film business, calling for China to become a major movie power that reflects the socialist ideal of the "Chinese Dream." "Film should take the people as its center and socialist core values as a guide, while adhering to social and economic efficiency, increased creativity and building China into a movie power,” Liu told a film forum in Beijing. List THR Reveals Hollywood's 100 Favorite Films Hollywood is having a spectacular year in China, prompting industry leaders to think of ways to improve Chinese
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- 7/9/2014
- by Clifford Coonan
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Johnny Depp will be able to add "Chinese reality show judge" to his long and impressive résumé on Friday when he helps select the winner of the hit show Chinese Dream Show, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Whoever Depp chooses will get the chance to return to Hollywood with him and live out their star-studded dream.
'Rolling Stone' Readers Choose the 10 Best Johnny Depp Movies
Shot in the city of Hangzhou, Chinese Dream Show offers ordinary citizens the chance to have their biggest wishes granted. Like American Idol, viewers vote...
'Rolling Stone' Readers Choose the 10 Best Johnny Depp Movies
Shot in the city of Hangzhou, Chinese Dream Show offers ordinary citizens the chance to have their biggest wishes granted. Like American Idol, viewers vote...
- 6/26/2014
- Rollingstone.com
Expectation is rising in China ahead of Friday’s finale of Chinese Dream, as Johnny Depp is gets ready to choose the lucky person who will come with him to Hollywood to live out their dream as the popular reality talent show draws to a close. The show, shot in the elegant and wealthy eastern city of Hangzhou, centers around making ordinary people’s wishes come true and live performances, where audiences vote for a “Dreamer” who then goes on to the next show. Photos Johnny Depp's First Trip to China During his visit to China in April, Depp was asked why he
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- 6/26/2014
- by Clifford Coonan
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Wayne Wang will direct Brave Dragons, a film based on Jim Yardley’s new book about an NBA coach who moves with his wife to the Chinese industrial city Taiyuan to coach the Shanxi Brave Dragons, one of the worst teams in the Chinese Basketball Association. Jonathan Prince is writing the script. The film is being produced by Jack Lechner, Ira Lechner and Jonathan Bing. Brave Dragons takes a comedic look at veteran NBA head coach Bob Weiss and his spectacularly loyal wife as they discover the exotic world of China over the course of a single season in the Cba. The Shanxi Brave Dragons are owned by Boss Wang, who did things that even Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wouldn’t conceive. An irascible steel tycoon, Boss Wang would sit on the bench and berates and even physically attacks his ragtag cast of international misfit players. That included...
- 8/6/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
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