Censorship in Hong Kong Cinema

I'm really annoyed by the practice of censorship of mainsteram and independent cinematic film in Hong Kong.

While I don't see a huge number if films in the cinema, one of the films I was really eager to see was Ang Lee's Lust|Caution. I've been a huge fan of Ang Lee since I first saw his comedic masterpiece The Wedding Banquet back in about 1991. In my opinion The Wedding Banquet was a better film than Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, the title of which I like to joke sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger asking someone out on a date.

But I digress. I've loved ever Ang Lee movie, and I really wanted to see Lust|Caution. Until I found out that it would be censored before release in Hong Kong. While not as drastic as the censorship in the mainland, where a full 30-something minutes were cut out, there were neverhteless 8 minutes cut out from the Hong Kong cinematic version.

I very strongly want to see the film as Lee envisioned it, even though he claims the censorship doesn't really cut much of crucial importance from the film, and the scenes in the HK version were still steamy enough to get the point across.

So I've thus far refused to see the film, and I'm waiting for the uncensored import DVD version to be released. It might be tricky to get, as this film is much higher profile than 9 Songs, which was also censored in Hong Kong. But I've got a DVD supplier who got me my British copy of 9 Songs who might be able to help. Barring that, I can always ask my parents to send me a copy from the US, or even order it from Amazon.

So it's still going to be a while before I can see the film most of my friends are raving about. But I'm glad that the first time I see it it will be in its "purest" form.