Arts, Briefly: China Vetoes Film
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China has blocked production of âShanghai,â a Hollywood film about an American who investigates a friendâs death in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, The Associated Press reported. Luan Guozhi, the director of international cooperation at the Chinese Film Bureau, declined to reveal the governmentâs concerns, but said the filmmakers could alter the script and resubmit their application. The Japanese invasion of China during World War II remains a sensitive topic, and other filmmakers have had difficulty winning approval from China for projects set in the same era. Variety has reported that the cast includes John Cusack, Gong Li, right, and Ken Watanabe. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have already been spent on production, and the director, Mikael Hafstrom, has been in China since September preparing to film. Variety reported that he planned to move the production to Hong Kong.
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China on Friday agreed with the Motion  Picture Association of America and other groups to do more to  tackle copyright piracy on the Internet, the official Xinhua  news agency said. China's National Copyright Administration  said the country would investigate and punish those suspected  of online intellectual property abuses by the movie association  as well as other groups such as the Association of American  Publishers.
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China has pulled Li Yuâs âLost in Beijing,â a movie whose sexually explicit scenes were already censored, from theaters and banned its producer from the film business for two years, The Associated Press reported. The ruling against âLost in Beijingâ accused the filmmakers of publishing unapproved pornographic scenes from the movie on the Internet and on DVDs, the official China News Service Web site reported. The filmâs producer, Fang Li, said he believed that Chinese officials faced political pressure to act amid the rapid spread of uncensored versions of âLost in Beijingâ and another sexually explicit film, Ang Leeâs âLust, Caution,â on the Internet and in pirated DVDs.
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An uncensored version of a Chinese film was screened at the Berlin film festival on Friday, its producer said, and the director told reporters she hoped she did not live to regret making the controversial picture.
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China has imposed a moratorium on new foreign investment in film and TV production companies, a news report on Friday quoted a regulatory official as saying.
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China on Wednesday abruptly blocked a meeting of global union and business leaders scheduled for next week that aimed to press Beijing to do more to protect workers&#39; rights.
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Chinese leaders imposed a ban on news reports about the death of Zhao Ziyang, who opposed the 1989 crackdown on protesters.
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China said sports and politics should be kept separate, after filmmaker Steven Spielberg criticized Beijing for not using its influence to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
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China told critics on Friday not to link the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to political issues or boycotts, saying that any attempt to do so would be "inappropriate and unpopular".
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China has censored part of the latest instalment of hit Hollywood movie &quot;Pirates of the Caribbean&quot; for &quot;vilifying and defacing the Chinese&quot;, the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday.
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HONG KONG -- For decades, Chinese filmmakers haven't made a major feature film about one of the biggest wartime atrocities suffered by their country: the Nanjing massacre of 1937. Now  two directors are preparing to make movies set against the Japanese military's brutal killings in the former...
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A Pakistani Senate committee has proposed an end to the four-decade ban on showing movies from India, Agence France-Press reported. In a statement on Tuesday, the committee referred to the films when it said, âThe ban has practically become ineffective as these are being viewed uncensored in almost every household on cable TV as well as CDs and DVDs, necessitating a reappraisal to deal with the issue rationally.â.
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The Chinese city of Beijing has cancelled an order for Microsoft software, apparently bowing to protectionist sentiment. The deal has come under fire in China, which is trying to build a domestic software industry.
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China on Sunday announced detailed controls on the distribution of news by foreign news agencies, banning all content that violates its own tight media restrictions.
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China's government backpedaled slightly from its earlier policy concerning video sites, now saying that existing sites can continue to operate.
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China announced rules on Sunday  requiring foreign media to seek approval from its state news  agency to distribute news, pictures and graphics domestically,  and warned against reports that "endanger national security."
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Rights groups on Wednesday praised Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's decision to shun involvement with the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies because China was not doing enough to help end the crisis in Darfur.