Do not expect many Chinese villains in future Bond films
  • JamesPageJamesPage
    Posts: 1,134
    In an interesting report on the state of Hollywood and its cowing down to Chinese audiences, the LA Times speculates that movie goers are unlikely to see many villains from the world's most populous country in future big screen adventures.

    Chinese censors are known to cut any derogatory or negative portrayals of their country or nationals, even when completely fantastical, and Hollywood studios are now preemptively satisfying the wishes of the communist state to ensure their movie gets in front of the huge audience.

    Recent examples of movies changed in post production to meet China's requirements include Sony's "Men In Black 3" (where scenes set in New York's Chinatown that they believed depicted Chinese Americans unflatteringly were cut. Sony refused to comment) and MGM's remake of "Red Dawn" (where the aggressors were switched from China to North Korea with CGI after filming had wrapped). Both studios are working together on "Skyfall" and the next 007 adventure, Bond 24.

    James Bond will be in Shanghai in "Skyfall," though the production isn't receiving Chinese funding, and the first unit did not travel to China (scenes were created at Pinewood Studios). Nevertheless, do not expect many Chinese 'bad guys' in the film. At least in the version shown in China.

    The potential for the Chinese box-office is too tempting to Hollywood, who are seeing flat or declining revenues in traditional, Western markets.

    Recent movies like "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" even went so far as to add Chinese organizations and characters in positive roles, despite them not even being part of the original source novel.

    "Hollywood these days is sometimes better at carrying water for the Chinese than the Chinese themselves," said Stanley Rosen, director of the East Asian Studies Center at USC and an expert on film and media. "We are doing all the heavy lifting for them."

    Furthermore, if a movie is co-financed by a Chinese organization, a movie can bypass the rigid foreign-release quota at the nations box-office. But such films often must include some Chinese elements — positive ones. Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 3," which recently began filming in locales including North Carolina and China, is expected to show a highly friendly side to the Chinese, because the production is accepting Chinese funds from the financing entity DMG.

    "It's a clear-cut case — maybe the first I can think of in the history of Hollywood — where a foreign country's censorship board deeply affects what we produce," said a leading Hollywood producer who, like several others interviewed for the LA Times story, spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to offend potential Chinese partners.
  • karatemanchan37karatemanchan37
    Posts: 526
    Hmm...what if the villains are Chinese-Americans?
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7
    Posts: 13,641
    This is just stupid. Spoiler. Chinese men and women came be villains, just like every other ethnicity. And so what if China or its people are shown in a bad light? Just because a film depicts a country as such doesn't mean the country is that bad in real life. IT'S A MOVIE!
  • JamesPageJamesPage
    Posts: 1,134
    One side note, which I thought about, but ultimately decided not to put in that story to keep it from swerving off topic, is that the US Government has had a active hand in making sure its portrayal in movies is as positive as possible for many years. This is not quite the same issue though, as it's often American movies tweaked by American interests, not foreign. Recent example? Admiral Chuck Farrel, who is killed by Xenia in the first reel "GoldenEye", was originally US Navy before they requested he change to Canadian at the scripting stage.
  • NicNacNicNac
    Posts: 2,046
    Hence so many British villains in US movies. And of course the need to re-write history and change British acheivements to American acheivements. ;-) (Only joking my American pals :-) )

    Having said that it's clear that if the Chinese are sensative about these matters then it stands to reason Hollywood will take note.

  • boldfingerboldfinger
    Posts: 901
    Don´t the Chinese have any sense for the beauty of clichees?
    I am German, yet I thoroughly enjoy a good German villain, and that makes my life so much richer ;-) !

    I feel so sorry for the Chinese, who will never be able to watch Goldfinger!
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 3,509
    Glad i live in the UK and i'm free to watch whatever i like?!!! Us Brits do make good villains when used! But we are not all like that! The poor Chinese public are having there entertainment dumbed down for them by an over reactive government!
  • OHMSS69OHMSS69
    Posts: 1,058
    Chinese villian? Heck who needs them anyway?? We got a whole gallery of rogues worldwide. Take your pick.
  • Samuel001Samuel001
    Posts: 9,934
    Wonderful read, for so many wrong - and right - reasons...
  • OHMSS69OHMSS69
    Posts: 1,058
    boldfinger said:

    Don´t the Chinese have any sense for the beauty of clichees?
    I am German, yet I thoroughly enjoy a good German villain, and that makes my life so much richer ;-) !

    I feel so sorry for the Chinese, who will never be able to watch Goldfinger!



    Actually those bumbling Asians in GOLDFINGER were suppossed to be Koreans... I doubt the Chinese would have a problem with that.
  • boldfingerboldfinger
    Posts: 901
    Oh, you´re right I suppose.

    Well, anyhow, in CR and QOS the nationalities of the villains seem to be on purpose not identifiable. Which again is no news. After all, in the films, SPECTRE was used extensively in the past instead of cold war elements as in Fleming´s novels. Fleming even went into the nationality background of SPECTRE in detail, something that no filmmaker dared to take upon himself.
  • echoecho
    Posts: 1,183
    OHMSS69 said:

    boldfinger said:

    Don´t the Chinese have any sense for the beauty of clichees?
    I am German, yet I thoroughly enjoy a good German villain, and that makes my life so much richer ;-) !

    I feel so sorry for the Chinese, who will never be able to watch Goldfinger!



    Actually those bumbling Asians in GOLDFINGER were suppossed to be Koreans... I doubt the Chinese would have a problem with that.


    Wasn't the person who procured the bomb in GF Chinese? Mr. Ling?
  • OHMSS69OHMSS69
    Posts: 1,058
    @Echo
    Yes, Ling was Chinese...
    and as for boldfinger's comment about them not being able to watch GF, actually I read somewhere that the Israelis wanted to ban the film because Gert Frobe had mentioned in an interview that he had been a Nazi. He was a young man growing up in Germany in the 1930's-1940's and that could be expected.(not like he admitted to being a concentration camp guard or anything like that ) The Israelis did not see it that way.
  • Creasy47Creasy47
    Posts: 6,943
    @OHMSS69, exactly. Why is it shocking that if you were at such an age and place at the dawn and period of World War II that you would have been a Nazi?
  • OrdinaryJoeOrdinaryJoe
    Posts: 1
    Coming from a Chinese ethnic background, I welcome the idea of another Chinese villain. I remember seeing the first Dr. No Bond movie when I was in my teens. It was great. Dr. No the villain acted by Joseph Wiseman was great but I would have preferred an Asian actor. Dr. No was a very smart villain. Where would Superman be without Lex Luthor? Batman without the Joker? Harry Potter without Valdemort? Bond without Goldfinger? I think the villain gets written more of the better lines and scenes in the movie, always. The villain has to be compelling, a touch of humanity, yet willing to be cruel and willing to kill without remorse. Much like Bond.

    I am urging a remake of Dr. No as the next James Bond 24 movie.
  • echoecho
    Posts: 1,183
    OHMSS69 said:

    @Echo
    Yes, Ling was Chinese...
    and as for boldfinger's comment about them not being able to watch GF, actually I read somewhere that the Israelis wanted to ban the film because Gert Frobe had mentioned in an interview that he had been a Nazi. He was a young man growing up in Germany in the 1930's-1940's and that could be expected.(not like he admitted to being a concentration camp guard or anything like that ) The Israelis did not see it that way.



    Isn't that the same argument that the current Pope makes? That young Germans were forced to become Hitler Youth?

  • GrindermanGrinderman
    Posts: 165
    NicNac said:

    Hence so many British villains in US movies.





    Nah, that's just because your cool accent helps you sound far more devious than we ever could. :-) Besides, what would any American villain do in a movie that could measure up to what our goverment does in real life?
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