47 Hong Kong Stars Blacklisted in China due to Supporting the Pro-Democracy Protests

[One Armed Boxer]

Various HK media sources have reported that a total of 47 local stars have been blacklisted in China due to showing their support for the Occupy Central pro-democracy protests.

What this essentially means is that those on the list won't be allowed to make any appearances in China, and won't be mentioned in any state-owned mainland Chinese media outlets - which includes Chinese movies.

Considering most HK movies these days are China co-productions, it'll be interesting to see what the future holds if the news is confirmed as true.

Reported as being on the list are -

Chow Yun Fat

Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Anthony Wong

Chapman To

Nicky Cheung

When Chow was asked about how he felt about potentially being included on the list, true to form, he smoothly responded that "I'll just make less then." He's still the man!

[Sheng]

Here's more on this sad matter...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/world/asia/hong-kong-stars-face-mainland-backlash-over-support-for-protests.html?_r=0

And this is the Denise Ho song about the 'umbrella raising'...

C_23GElzJFo

[ToryK]

Various HK media sources have reported that a total of 47 local stars have been blacklisted in China due to showing their support for the Occupy Central pro-democracy protests.

What this essentially means is that those on the list won't be allowed to make any appearances in China, and won't be mentioned in any state-owned mainland Chinese media outlets - which includes Chinese movies.

Considering most HK movies these days are China co-productions, it'll be interesting to see what the future holds if the news is confirmed as true.

Reported as being on the list are -

Chow Yun Fat

Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Anthony Wong

Chapman To

Nicky Cheung

When Chow was asked about how he felt about potentially being included on the list, true to form, he smoothly responded that "I'll just make less then." He's still the man!

But yeah, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I don't know enough to make heads or tails of things here, but it'll be interesting.

[Youal]

Hong Kong co-production with China usually are propaganda garbage anyways. Iceman, Special ID quickly comes to mind.

When was the last good HK/China movie that you remember? I can't think of any.

Btw, I always thought China is sucking the life out of Hong Kong film industry ever since they took over. Here's the topic I posted 2 years ago about this very thing.

http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19302

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

I guess I will stop watching Mainland garbage. Opps, already have. I am sure Jackie Chan is siding with the prc.

[DiP]

When was the last good HK/China movie that you remember? I can't think of any.

Well, here's some good films in the last 4 years imo:

Gallants

The Stool Pigeon

Dream Home

Ip Man 2

Bruce Lee, My Brother

Life Without Principle

Wu Xia

Overheard 2

Punished

Cold War

Motorway

Drug War

Unbeatable

Firestorm

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

Good for them. Hollywood is ready for them with open arms.

[DiP]

Would love to get hold of the complete list and see all the faithful and traitorous ones of HK cinema.

[Youal]

Well, here's some good films in the last 4 years imo:

Gallants

The Stool Pigeon

Dream Home

Ip Man 2

Bruce Lee, My Brother

Life Without Principle

Wu Xia

Overheard 2

Punished

Cold War

Motorway

Drug War

Unbeatable

Firestorm

Ip Man 2 and Wu Xia were good. I thought Ip Man 2 is true HK movie but I could be wrong.

Heres a list of HK/China movies that were disappointing:

Badges of Fury

Chinese Zodiac

Special ID

Ice Man

The Four

The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate

Legend of the Fist

Police Story 2013

The Emperor and the White Snake

[Sheng]

Hong Kong co-production with China usually are propaganda garbage anyways.

Blatantly thoughtless generalisations of that ilk make me wonder if you really know what you’re talkin’ about. From BODYGUARDS & ASSASSINS to THE GRANDMASTERS, some of the best movies coming out of Asia in the last half-decade or so happen to be HK/China co-productions. OAB name-checked a few more (even though DREAMHOME was a HK-exclusive, certainly not a co-op, and FIRESTORM can safely be avoided... )

[One Armed Boxer]

Blatantly thoughtless generalisations of that ilk make me wonder if you really know what you’re talkin’ about. From BODYGUARDS & ASSASSINS to THE GRANDMASTERS, some of the best movies coming out of Asia in the last half-decade or so happen to be HK/China co-productions.

I think it comes down to the movies which have the patriotic flag waving rammed down the viewers throat in a less than subtle way just tend to stick out in the mind more is what Youal is getting at. In terms of movies that have, I guess you would call it the 'look and feel' of being a China co-production, I'm thinking 'Drug War', 'Special ID', 'Police Story 2013', rather than just funding behind the scenes, for me 'Drug War' was the only one that truly worked, and I know To did a lot of creative maneuvering on that one to get it past the censors (I believe having all the bad guys played by HK actors was looked on favorably).

OAB name-checked a few more (even though DREAMHOME was a HK-exclusive, certainly not a co-op, and FIRESTORM can safely be avoided... )

I think you mixed me up with DiP here.

OAB: One armed guy who likes to beat up Japanese people.

DiP: Donnie Yen's international PR man

[thekfc]

I have been following the events.

To sum it up what the protest is about in a short parapraph.

After the turnover in 1997, the HK people were promised universal suffrage but was not given a timetable. In 2007, the NPCSC promise that it will begin with the election of the fifth Chief Executive of HKSAR in the year 2017.

Now (2014) they are being told that they can vote for their leader but they cannot choose the candidates - Bejing get to choose the candidates for them. The students (and others) are protesting (fighting) so that they get to choose they own candidates.

Celebrities who have spoken out in support of the students - not sure how many are on the so called blacklist:

Andy Lau

Chow Yun-Fat

Tony Leung

Nick Cheung

Anthony Wong

Paul Wong

Chapman To

Albert Leung

Karena Lam

Celina Jade

Anita Yuen

Cantopop singer Kay Tse

Singer Joey Yung

Denise Ho

Deserts Xuan

Dominic James Lau

Stephen Au

Kenneth Ip / Shu Kei

MC Jin

Poet Wang Zang - arrested for posting a picture of him holding up an umbrella & giving the middle finger.

Writer Lin Xi - was schedule to give a lecture in beijing but was cancelled at the last minute. He wrote the lyrics to the protest song "Raise the Umbrela" as well as the official 2008 Beijing Olympics song "Beijing Welcoms You".

Spoken out for peaceful resolution: Eric Tsang, Chet Lam, Dada Chan, GEM Tang, Michele Chen.

Spoken out against the protest:

Jackie Chan - no surprise here.

Law Kar-ying

Wong Jing

Wong Jing said that he will no longer work with & will "unfriend" Anthony Wong, Chapman To & Denise Ho.There is reports that he dropped Chapman To from the cast of "From Vegas to Macau 2". Now what about Chow & Nick - they also support the Students but arein the upcoming movie.

[DiP]

I think you mixed me up with DiP here.

OAB: One armed guy who likes to beat up Japanese people.

DiP: Donnie Yen's international PR man

Should be: Bringing peace and prosperity to the action movie world with news on China's current action movie king's next projects

[Sheng]

I think it comes down to the movies which have the patriotic flag waving rammed down the viewers throat in a less than subtle way just tend to stick out in the mind more is what Youal is getting at. In terms of movies that have, I guess you would call it the 'look and feel' of being a China co-production

OAB, I probably took this grotesquely mindless comment at face value, wasn’t really thinking what the man could possibly try to allude to. Dude said: “Hong Kong co-production with China usually are propaganda garbage anyways. Iceman, Special ID quickly comes to mind.“ Now, I ain’t seen ICEMAN, but watched SPECIAL ID three times. You can pan it for having “childish dialogue”, “overacting”, “bad comedy”, whatever, but as “propaganda garbage” it hardly qualifies. Check BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL or THE FOUNDING OF A REPUBLIC if you wanna make a point about that.

And of course you’re right, there obviously is a certain ‘look’ and ‘feel’ to China/HK co-productions (most of all there’s a certain sound to them since they’re inevitably all filmed in Putonghua). Which is not necessarily a bad thing, I'd say. For instance, China/HK joint ventures like RED CLIFF, THE WARLORDS, WU XIA, REIGN OF ASSASSINS, BATTLE OF WITS, THE WOMAN KNIGHT OF MIRROR LAKE and many others could have never had the same impressive ‘look’ and ‘feel’ if they were only conceived as “HK movies” in a bygone age and time.

DiP: Donnie Yen's international PR man

Thanks for the clarification! Think now I understand some of his old posts a ‘lil better...Of course the man must have been rightfully outraged when someone like me once had the audacity to suggest that Chin Kar Lok might be an even better AC than Donnie...

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

How can I put this- to the people that are for the crackdown-Chan, Jing, Ying, etc, I say "fuck those guys". Most of the China productions are filled with hypocrisy. The days of imperial tyrants are now looked at as "the good old days" as the filthy rich of today would love to openly have slaves and concubines. Hey. let's bring back public executions with broadswords for these dissidents! Got to protect the fascist, I mean socialist state, where everyone is equal, right?

I say boycott their stuff. When Chan goes to Hollywood, people should be sending in reminders of what a sleaze he is. I've been sick of his fake smile for years.

[thekfc]

According to a recent survey, about 1/2 of China's billionaires are either leaving China or plan to leave within the next 5 years. And the #1 place they want to move to is HK.

http://jingdaily.com/why-chinas-super-rich-are-flocking-abroad-in-record-numbers/

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Half-of-Chinese-billionaires-plans-to-flee-their-country-within-five-years-32151.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/09/15/almost-half-of-wealthy-chinese-want-to-leave/

[Sheng]

Most of the China productions are filled with hypocrisy. The days of imperial tyrants are now looked at as "the good old days" as the filthy rich of today would love to openly have slaves and concubines. Hey. let's bring back public executions with broadswords for these dissidents! Got to protect the fascist, I mean socialist state, where everyone is equal, right?

Undifferentiated and unbelievably ignorant claptrap of the worst kind! Any effort to comment rants of this sort would amount to a total waste of energy.

I say boycott their stuff. When Chan goes to Hollywood, people should be sending in reminders of what a sleaze he is. I've been sick of his fake smile for years.

I can hardly be considered a fan of Chan’s recent China-made output, but when he did go to Hollywood in the early 2000’s the results were certainly worse.

Boycott their stuff? Chee sin!

[DiP]

Thanks for the clarification! Think now I understand some of his old posts a ‘lil better...Of course the man must have been rightfully outraged when someone like me once had the audacity to suggest that Chin Kar Lok might be an even better AC than Donnie...

That was nothing. Sure, I kind of had an strong urge to react but outraged I definitely wasn't. I'm a changed man now though so it's all cool.

[DiP]

According to a recent survey, about 1/2 of China's billionaires are either leaving China or plan to leave within the next 5 years. And the #1 place they want to move to is HK.

http://jingdaily.com/why-chinas-super-rich-are-flocking-abroad-in-record-numbers/

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Half-of-Chinese-billionaires-plans-to-flee-their-country-within-five-years-32151.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/09/15/almost-half-of-wealthy-chinese-want-to-leave/

I smell something promising for HK cinema on the premises...

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Undifferentiated and unbelievably ignorant claptrap of the worst kind! Any effort to comment rants of this sort would amount to a total waste of energy.

I can only deduce that you side with Chan and the police gassing peaceful protestors. I have seen a definite shift in how the old dynasties are presented. At one time they were (even in Hong Kong Movies) as corrupt and oppressive. Now, the focus is on royalty and how the end justifies the means. Hey, to be rich is glorious, right? The RCP is simply the new Manchu dynasty, for the most part.

I can hardly be considered a fan of Chan’s recent China-made output, but when he did go to Hollywood in the early 2000’s the results were certainly worse.

Boycott their stuff? Chee sin!

In the USA we call that voting with our pocket book. Of course, Chan is against democracy, so the principal of a vote is foreign to him. Anyway, it's not that hard for me to boycott him, his stuff has been unwatchable since Drunken Master 2.

This is serious stuff, political oppression of the worst kind, and part of an attempt to return to feudalism. It's not just in China, so don't get me wrong- it's in a lot of countries.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

PS, a lot of them want to move to the US. That is, after they have gotten finished making their country into an unlivable shit-hole than moving the money to banks here.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102001188

[Youal]

OAB, I probably took this grotesquely mindless comment at face value, wasn’t really thinking what the man could possibly try to allude to. Dude said: “Hong Kong co-production with China usually are propaganda garbage anyways. Iceman, Special ID quickly comes to mind.“ Now, I ain’t seen ICEMAN, but watched SPECIAL ID three times. You can pan it for having “childish dialogue”, “overacting”, “bad comedy”, whatever, but as “propaganda garbage” it hardly qualifies. Check BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL or THE FOUNDING OF A REPUBLIC if you wanna make a point about that.

And of course you’re right, there obviously is a certain ‘look’ and ‘feel’ to China/HK co-productions (most of all there’s a certain sound to them since they’re inevitably all filmed in Putonghua). Which is not necessarily a bad thing, I'd say. For instance, China/HK joint ventures like RED CLIFF, THE WARLORDS, WU XIA, REIGN OF ASSASSINS, BATTLE OF WITS, THE WOMAN KNIGHT OF MIRROR LAKE and many others could have never had the same impressive ‘look’ and ‘feel’ if they were only conceived as “HK movies” in a bygone age and time.

While there is no patriotic flag waving in Special ID, there is certainly an image of "China-can't-do-no-wrong" being projected. The bad guys cannot win while the good guys always prevail. There is only black and white, no grey area. Just compare SPL and Flashpoint to Special ID and see the difference. You ever noticed how the setting in the former takes place before the China handover while latter doesn't. A strict code of guidelines has been impose on this film by the China board that force to the producers to tone down the vulgar language and present China in a good light.

[Sheng]

Originally Posted by NoKUNGFUforYU

I can only deduce that you side with Chan and the police gassing peaceful protestors.

Can you? That’s probably why I imbedded the link to Denise Ho’s protest tune ‘Raise The Umbrella’ in my opening post, right?

I have seen a definite shift in how the old dynasties are presented. At one time they were (even in Hong Kong Movies) as corrupt and oppressive.

Again, the type of hilariously flippant over-generalisation you seem to be prone of.

Remember the Ming/Qing dichotomy and the “overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming” battlecries of the transition period between those two great dynasties? This period was re-enacted in popular (wuxia) fiction for several hundred years as well as in a thousand-and-one classical Kung Fu flicks, where the Ming dynasty, its culture, its values and also its nobility were uniformly celebrated (and needed to be reinstalled by the righteous kung fu-fighting ‘Ming patriots’!)

Now, the focus is on royalty and how the end justifies the means. Hey, to be rich is glorious, right? The RCP is simply the new Manchu dynasty, for the most part.

Baseless and shockingly puerile comparisms of that type do nothing to explain the tragic dynamics of the current HK/China crisis. It would be like saying that after the police crackdowns in Ferguson and the cold-blooded murders of the likes of Michael Brown,Trayvon Martin and others America’s entire legal system has collapsed and the country is once again descending into the abyss of pre-civil rights type Jim Crow 'justice'.

But enough of all these radical simplifications. Maybe it would help if you make the effort to understand Manchu era China first before weighing in with ludicrously inappropriate analogies. As a primer I’d suggest to immerse yourself in Jonathan Spence’s classic and eminently readable study “The Search For Modern China”. Or, even more specific on Qing (Manchu) dynasty life, try to get hold of a copy of Richard J. Smith’s “China’s Cultural Heritage – The Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912”.

Of course, Chan is against democracy, so the principal of a vote is foreign to him. Anyway, it's not that hard for me to boycott him, his stuff has been unwatchable since Drunken Master 2.

Since DRUNKEN MASTER 2 ? Meaning NoKUNGFUforYU no mo’ from JC since 1994, huh? Well, I and I’m sure many others here would beg to differ. But just go ahead and raise your boycott banner then...

[thekfc]

A few days ago Liberal Party leader James Tien Pei-chun called on Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to consider resigning in order to resolve the current impasse on political reform in Hong Kong.

His punishment for voicing his views:

He is stripped of his post by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and then resigned.

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1627050/james-tien-faces-cppcc-expulsion-after-calling-cy-leung-resihn

No sure if you can see this one - I am a subscriber. But the below 2 should open.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/29/us-hongkong-china-lawmaker-idUSKBN0II0Q320141029

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=54488&icid=3&d_str=

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Plenty of stuff in the US is bad- I'd say our justice system IS broken as well-

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/us/law-lets-irs-seize-accounts-on-suspicion-no-crime-required.html?_r=0

http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/09/29/highway-cash-seizures-civil-forfeiture/

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/28/rise_of_the_american_police_state_9_disgraceful_events_that_paved_the_way_partner/

Our police have been given assault weapons and armored vehicles, and the use of SWAT has gone up -

50% people impacted by SWAT deployments from 2011 to 2012 are black or Latino. Whites account for 20%.

Seven civilians were killed and 46 injured in such deployments from 2010 to 2013.

79% of all SWAT deployments were to execute search warrants for homes, most of them for drug searches.

7% of deployments were for hostage, barricade or active-shooter scenarios.

So yes, we have it bad here. That means I have more respect for some "nobody" or as we should call them, hero, who risks his neck for a better society than a hack like Chan who risks his neck to enrich himself, than urges the government to crack down on others.