I googled your quotes though, and they seem to lead from Epoch times, the Falun Gong mouthpiece, which is probably less credible than China Daily when it comes to China since they make it their mission to make up stuff about China. I wouldn’t trust this news or those quotes. Most sources don’t have anything that actually says that the Japanese factor is the reason why.

China has more Japanese-Chinese collabs than most places I know… About Love was a wonderful smorgasboard of Taiwanese- Japanese- Chinese relations. I wish they would do something like that again.

“During his visit to Taiwan in November 2008, Chen Yunlin, the Chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) publicly praised this film after a private screening. However on November 28, 2008 during a regular ARATS meeting in Beijing, Chen reversed his view and stated that this film was “marred by the shadow of Japanization”. He recommended the film be banned in the People’s Republic of China.”

I don’t really know why Tang Wei got blacklisted for five years…it was so stupid, and one of the things that made me feel like SARFT had no hope.

Is Chen Yunlin the one who when he went to Taiwan was knocked to the ground, has his glasses got knocked off and had to hide in his car while people were jumping on top of it? Or was that his colleague? I’m not sure he’s exactly the most unbiased after that.

Actually, I liked Yi Yi though I thought it was overrated. I have seen better though. I think you are probably right about people attributing Secret’s success to Jay. As for Ang Lee, he has been working in the West for a long time. I guess lately he has been working in Asia more with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Lust Caution. I wish he would do another movie pertaining about food like Eat Drink Man Woman. That is like the ultimate foodie movie! Makes me so hungry,haha

“But I don’t really think China delayed Cape No7 due to the pro-Japanese aspect.So many Chinese films feature Japanese people nowadays that I can’t see why a romance between a Taiwanese/Japanese would be controversial considering it’s been done before”

Well, heres what I got from articles I read. Im not sure why they banned it but i think the pro-japanese aspects due have a good bit to do with it. Didnt they ban poor Tang Wei because of her character falling in love with a Pro-Japanese “traitor” in Lust Caution?

“Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) told a conference in Beijing on Friday that the movie was tainted by its portrayal of Taiwanese who had been subject to “colonial brainwashing” and that traces of Japan’s kominka (assimilation) policy were evident”

“The paper said senior Chinese officials believed releasing the film could fuel nationalistic feelings, which would be counter to the peaceful atmosphere that Taiwan and China have been promoting.”

But I don’t really think China delayed Cape No7 due to the pro-Japanese aspect.So many Chinese films feature Japanese people nowadays that I can’t see why a romance between a Taiwanese/Japanese would be controversial considering it’s been done before.

China’s film board is really weird though, so I don’t know. They are very bad at PR. Any films they ban are readily watchable elsewhere and I agree they are hurting China’s industry by limiting creative flow. China is slowly getting out the stupor that it had during the Mao-era where culture in general seemed to be bad, and I feel although in general China’s government does a good job with letting its various industries thrive and improve, it really has limited the film industry in stupid ways.

I don’t know when it will change, because the change seems slow but it’s definitely better than it was ten years ago. I think once it does fully open up (I think in maybe 25 years) however, it’s going to be a huge force in world cinema simply due to the number of creative talent, and both Taiwan and HK and whatever other Chinese-speaking regions will be able to enjoy that market due to common language, just like Chinese speakers in regions like Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia can enjoy Taiwan’s promotion of their singers, and China’s market for music.

Are you Taiwanese? I’d be interested to actually see an English language review from someone who did get it, all the little references that probably made the movie the hit that it is, so if you write a review I’ll definitely put it on this site. Not that this site gets a lot of traffic or anything, but it’d still be out there.

Oh and I keep forgetting…in response to an earlier comment of yours I think a good place for indie rock recs would be My Super Cloud, the LJ community I have listed under English Language Sites.