Punishment of director Lou Ye based on Chinese film regulation: official
15/9/2006 15:49
The Chinese film watchdog yesterday said that the five-year film-making
ban imposed on young director Lou Ye will have a positive effect on the Chinese
film industry.
The penalty was announced in early September after Lou took
"Summer Palace", a Palme d'Or candidate, to the Cannes Film Festival in May
without official approval for its general release from the State Administration
of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).
"According to the law, we must punish
people who release their films without adhering to the censorship regulations.
We believe our measures will accelerate the development of the Chinese film
industry," said Zhao Shi, deputy director of the SARFT, at a press conference in
Beijing.
Based on the Regulations on Administration of Films, Lou is
prohibited from making films for five years and five to ten times the film's
income will be confiscated. Lou was not fined, Zhao told Xinhua.
"As each
country has its film administrative regulations and system based on its own
situation, China also has its film permission system. All films allowed to make
public releases must get through the censorship, as if other products will be
unentitled on sale until being supervised and inspected," she said.
Chinese
laws prohibit films from spreading information that go against the Constitution
and imposing bad influence on youngsters.
"Summer Palace", the only Asian
film in the main competition of this year's Cannes Film Festival, features a
young Chinese couple's erotic and complex relationship against a backdrop of
civil unrest respectively in Berlin and Beijing in the 1990s.
Earlier reports
said "Summer Palace" was not granted a license because of "technical problems"
involving poor visual and audio quality.
It is the second time one of Lou's
film has been banned. In 2000, "Suzhou River," a tragic love story between a
motorcycle courier and the daughter of a smuggler, fell foul of the
censors.
Lou's other films, including "Wei qing shao nu" (1994) and "Purple
Butterfly" (2004), landed official permission for public release.
In recent
years, an array of Chinese film directors have defied the censors by submitting
their works to overseas film festivals, incurring heavy penalties.
Wang
Xiaoshuai's "Beijing Bicycle," the Silver Bear and Jury Grand Prix winner at the
54th Berlin film festival, was banned for over two years.
Others include
Zhang Yimou's "Living" (1994), Zhang Yuan's "Seventeen Years" (1999) and Jiang
Wen's "Devils on the doorstep" (2000).
xinhua
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