Hit Taiwanese film finally opens in China
2009-02-14

Nations China Taiwan Category Regions Regions Asia Pacific Rim Metropolitan Beijing People Ma Ying-jeou Ang Lee Movie Cape No. 7 Lust, Caution Source (AFP)

BEIJING (AFP) - A Taiwanese blockbuster finally hit movie screens in China on Saturday after a two-month delay widely believed linked to mainland censors being uncomfortable with its Japanese themes.

"Cape No. 7," which tells of the modern-day romance between a Taiwanese singer and a Japanese publicist, features some Japanese actors and dialogue.

Media reports in both Taiwan and China said Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng was scheduled to meet the audience in a Beijing cinema on Saturday to promote the movie.

Some Beijing newspapers on Saturday recommended the film as suitable for a Valentine's Day date.

Taiwanese media have speculated that anti-Japan sentiments in China were behind the long delay in its release on the mainland, which prompted an appeal by Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou last year.

However, state media reports in China said the film had been given the green light by censors. There was no mention that authorities had cut anything from the film.

"Cape No. 7" took in 530 million dollars (15 million US) in Taiwan last year, making it the island's highest-grossing Chinese-language film of all time.

Anti-Japanese sentiment continues to simmer on the mainland, which considers itself the biggest victim of Japanese wartime aggression in the 1930s and 1940s.

Mainland authorities have reportedly blacklisted Tang Wei, removing any works and commercials featuring the actress, over her role in Ang Lee's 2007 thriller "Lust, Caution."

In the Taiwanese director's film, Tang's character has an affair with a man collaborating with the Japanese in 1940s China.

Taiwanese take a far more favourable view of Japan despite being colonised by it between 1895-1945 and a lack of official ties, as Tokyo formally recognises Beijing.