UpdateHong Kong movie industry body baffled by censors’ requirement for film’s screening: ‘How can you sell tickets for a film without disclosing its name?’
- Chinese director Zhang Yuan’s 1993 film Beijing Bastards, about disaffected youth in the Chinese capital, was screened by M+ museum as ‘A Film By Zhang Yuan’
- A source confirms screening was only allowed if the name was removed. Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers spokesman ‘has never heard of a requirement like this’
The Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers on Sunday expressed concern over the film censorship board’s requirement that M+ museum conceal the name of a landmark 1993 Chinese film before it could be screened.
“From the point of view of a regular filmgoer, one has to wonder, how can you sell tickets for a film without disclosing its name?” said federation spokesman Tenky Tin Kai-man, referring to the museum’s January 19 and February 18 screenings of Zhang Yuan’s groundbreaking film Beijing Bastards.
As the Post reported on Friday, a source confirmed that the museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District was only allowed to screen the film after it agreed to drop the title.
The screenings at the museum are part of a series called “Once Upon a Time in Beijing”.
M+ said: “The film title was updated by filmmaker Zhang Yuan and [the] M+ curatorial team to highlight the filmmaker’s presence in ‘Once Upon a Time in Beijing’ in the M+ Cinema Winter Edition 2024.”