China yanks 'Avatar' for homegrown film
| Beijing
News that cinemas across China have been told to pull the 2D version of 鈥淎vatar," the second-highest grossing film of all time, has provoked a torrent of speculation as to why.
Nobody doubts that the authorities are behind the decision by the state-run movie distributor China Film Group, even though nobody from any government agency possibly involved was returning calls on Tuesday.
That didn鈥檛 stop bloggers from offering their own interpretations of the surprise move, which was first reported by a Hong Kong newspaper and later confirmed by 20th Century Fox, the film鈥檚 international distributor.
鈥淎vatar鈥� has grossed $76 million in ticket sales here since it opened two weeks ago 鈥� which makes it a record-breaking blockbuster in Chinese terms. Though the 3D version will continue to be on show on the country鈥檚 3D screens, the 2D version will close nationwide on Jan 22.
It will be replaced on 1,628 screens by 鈥�Confucius,鈥� a biopic of the ancient Chinese sage whose philosophy is finding increasing official favor in Beijing.
Hollywood tale hits close to home
The plot of 鈥淎vatar,鈥� on the other hand, could be seen to parallel all sorts of contemporary Chinese problems. The tale of a people threatened with eviction by outsiders in search of minerals could, for example, be thought to echo the plight of the Tibetans.
But the similarity that resonates with ordinary Chinese is between the invaders鈥� rapacious attack on the Na鈥檝is in 鈥淎vatar鈥� and greedy property developers鈥� routine evictions of householders and farmers in China to make way for new buildings.
Such evictions are the most common cause of violent disturbances in China, according to official statistics.
鈥淎vatar is a successful model in 鈥� fighting against violent demolition and we can learn from it in both the strategies and tactics,鈥� wrote one blogger.
Some protesters have already used the movie to draw attention to their plight. One blog carried a photo of a building under construction in the southern province of Guangdong proclaiming, 鈥淲e are innocent Na鈥檝is on the planet Pandora鈥� and 鈥淭he Avatar reality show is on.鈥�
The Chinese authorities would naturally be alarmed if they thought 鈥淎vatar鈥� might feed social unrest. But there might also be a straightforwardly commercial reason, some bloggers suggested, for the decision to replace a foreign blockbuster with a homegrown film just before the Chinese New Year 鈥� a peak movie season.
鈥淭hey are envious,鈥� said Li Ni on the Douban portal. 鈥淭hey could not make something like that themselves so they got green.
