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Jet Li Frustrated that His Films Can’t Get Past China Censors

After Jackie Chan expressed sadness that Rush Hour 3 was banned in China, Jet Li (perhaps the second Chinese actor next to Jackie Chan who penetrated Hollywood) is now conveying his disappointment over the same matter. Jet Li's movies suffered similar fate and China is a significant market for a hollywood film with Chinese lead actors. Jet Li and Jackie Chan will both star in an upcoming Hollywood movie "Forbidden Kingdom". The movie is about an American teenager's fantasy journey to ancient China to rescue a mythological monkey king.


Jet Li is frustrated that his Hollywood-made movies have not been able to clear Chinese censors.

The Chinese native said on his official Web site Monday that his 2000 movie Romeo Must Die wasn’t shown in China because it involved Chinese gangsters; his 2001 film Kiss of the Dragon was banned because it featured Chinese police killing on foreign soil.

Li said filmmakers were careful in handling his 2003 movie Cradle 2 the Grave. Wary of a Chinese backlash, they changed the character of a Chinese police officer, who steals nuclear material, to that of a Taiwanese police officer, but the movie still didn’t clear the censors.

Li said Chinese censors objected because Li, a Chinese martial arts champion, had played a Taiwanese person. China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing still views the self-ruled island as its territory and has threatened to retake it by force.

With his 2005 movie, Danny the Dog, also known as Unleashed, Li said he tried to convey an anti-violence message but still couldn’t win over Chinese censors who raised concerns about racism. Li plays an animal-like assassin who tries to break away from his criminal life.

“Many foreign filmmakers wonder how you can make an action movie that can show in China,” the actor said.

China carefully controls media content and only allows in about 20 foreign movies a year. The Chinese government often edits or bans foreign films it considers insulting to China’s reputation.

In a recent example, censors cut scenes of Chow Yun-fat depicted as a bald, scarred pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, saying the images insulted Chinese people, state media reported.

Li said he respects Chinese movie regulations, but added “films don’t always have to be realistic. In films there are many unrealistic things… It is my hope that audiences can mature and develop to see the difference between a movie and real life.”

Li, a former national kung fu champion in China, made his name in Hong Kong film with movies like the Once Upon a Time in China series before moving on to Hollywood. He continues to make Chinese-language films, recently shooting the Chinese historical epic The Warlords.

He is currently shooting the Hollywood movie The Forbidden Kingdom, which marks his first pairing with Jackie Chan. The movie is about an American teenager’s fantasy journey to ancient China to rescue a mythological monkey king.

Source: AP

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