Films banned by the Chinese film board - stupidest reason?
by jamesh5 | created - 20 Dec 2013 | updated - 22 Dec 2013 | PublicAll of these films have been banned in China, for various reasons - which reason do you deem to be the least substantial and as a result 'the stupidest' banning? Discuss here Source - Wikipedia
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1. Ben-Hur (1959)
G | 212 min | Adventure, Drama
After a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet
Votes: 253,812 | Gross: $74.70M
Banned for "propaganda of superstitious beliefs, namely Christianity".
2. Back to the Future (1985)
PG | 116 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Votes: 1,307,861 | Gross: $210.61M
Banned because the government believe time-travel to be a dangerous element in fiction and Marty McFly's actions to be highly inappropriate.
3. The Blue Kite (1993)
140 min | Drama, History
The lives of a Beijing family throughout the 1950s and 1960s, as they experience the impact of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.
Director: Zhuangzhuang Tian | Stars: Tian Yi, Wenyao Zhang, Xiaoman Chen, Liping Lü
Votes: 3,262 | Gross: $0.36M
A Chinese film that was not only banned, but was considered so offensive that the director Tian Zhuangzhuang received a ten year ban from film making.
4. Farewell My Concubine (1993)
R | 171 min | Drama, Music, Romance
Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.
Director: Kaige Chen | Stars: Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Gong Li, You Ge
Votes: 33,188 | Gross: $5.22M
Was banned for a time due to homosexual themes and a negative portrayal of communism.
5. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003)
PG-13 | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Adventurer Lara Croft goes on a quest to save the mythical Pandora's Box, before an evil scientist finds it, and recruits a former Marine turned mercenary to assist her.
Director: Jan de Bont | Stars: Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Chris Barrie, Ciarán Hinds
Votes: 144,922 | Gross: $65.66M
Banned for it's unflattering depictions of Chinese society.
6. The Departed (2006)
R | 151 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
Votes: 1,423,266 | Gross: $132.38M
Banned for a line that suggests that the Chinese government intends to use a nuclear weapon on Taiwan.
7. Death Note (2006)
Not Rated | 126 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
A battle between the world's two greatest minds begins when Light Yagami finds the Death Note, a notebook with the power to kill, and decides to rid the world of criminals.
Director: Shûsuke Kaneko | Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Asaka Seto, Yû Kashii
Votes: 31,875
Banned because people were making their own death notes and were writing peoples names down to imitate the film, which was deemed harmful and was thought to incite anarchy and insubordination.
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
PG-13 | 169 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Captain Barbossa, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann must sail off the edge of the map, navigate treachery and betrayal, find Jack Sparrow, and make their final alliances for one last decisive battle.
Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush
Votes: 694,022 | Gross: $309.42M
It was banned because Chow Yun-fat a Singaporean pirate, played a negative and stereotypical portrayal of Chinese people.
9. Shinjuku Incident (2009)
R | 119 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A simple Chinese immigrant wages a perilous war against one of the most powerful criminal organizations on the planet.
Director: Tung-Shing Yee | Stars: Jackie Chan, Naoto Takenaka, Daniel Wu, Jinglei Xu
Votes: 13,581
It was deemed too violent to go into wide release and was banned when the director refused to cut out the violence with-in the film.
10. Avatar (2009)
PG-13 | 162 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez
Votes: 1,387,248 | Gross: $760.51M
The 2D versions were banned because it was thought that its themes would lead audiences to think about forced removal and would possibly incite violence.
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