BEIJING FILM producer Hu Qiming was furious when he saw the cuts a post-production company made to his new release Curiosity Kills the Cat. A technician decided some scenes were too risque and snipped out about a dozen - without censors' prompting.
'We told the people who did it, 'You are not the police! You have no right to make that cut!'' recalls the producer, better known in the industry as Jimmy Wu.
Not one to give up easily, he called the company's chief to debate the cuts. 'It turns out the guy who did it had been punished by the authorities, 11 years ago, for letting something through,' says Wu, who runs the Eagle Spirit production company. 'I told them that presumption of innocence was introduced to the Chinese law books in 1996. And in 2004, the law was changed to protect private property. I wanted my property back!'
Eventually, Wu managed to get the dozen cuts reduced to three - with the agreement of officials at the Film Bureau, the department under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television responsible for movie censorship.
Wu's recent experience highlights an emerging conflict in the mainland film world. As private investors increase their stakes in an industry once restricted to state enterprises, they increasingly share film directors' struggle in having to fend off political vetting and other official interference.
Only two years ago, private firms were prohibited from making their own movies on the mainland and could only produce films in co-operation with a state-owned company, as so-called co-productions. 'Now, everything from production to distribution to exhibition is open to private investment,' says an industry insider, who declined to be named. 'There's no stopping it.'