Director Wang Xiaoshuai blasted for advising men to use his new film So Long, My Son as an aid with women
- In posts online, Wang says to book a late showing of movie then escort the date home: ‘She can’t say no to that’
- After online criticism, director shrugs and posts ‘looks like I am not for marketing’
Prominent Chinese film director Wang Xiaoshuai has come under fire for suggesting that his new movie, a sweeping drama of recent Chinese history, could be used to help men make advances on women.
The film, So Long, My Son, chronicles two families as they make their way through the changes in Chinese society since the early 1980s; at the Berlin International Film Festival last month, Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei won awards for best actor and best actress respectively.
The film opened in China last week and Wang has been promoting it on social media, urging readers to take their parents or laid-off workers to see it.
But one message he posted on his WeChat account on Wednesday offended many women after it was leaked to Weibo, a Twitter-like platform. It suggested that the three-hour movie could be the tool for men to make advances on their dates.
Passing as a method for scoring with the women they fancy, the message told men to book two tickets for a screening of So Long, My Son after 10pm at a cinema a bit far from where the woman lives. Other suggestions: take the woman’s hands when she cries and offer tissues.
“When the movie is finished it’s already after midnight. You have just spent your first night together. You will have a good reason to escort her home. She can’t say no to that and then ... I can only help you so much,” the message read.