I'm currently struggling through "Our Glamorous Time", which is about the modern fashion industry in mainland China. There are several romances, and the romantic scenes mostly involve food. Business dinners are a big thing. The social scenes involve food buffets. Everybody is thin, except one bad guy, and he gets shot.
(There's no sex. Not even close. This stuff is heavily censored and has blatant propaganda about the Belt and Road Initiative and the COMAC airliner. The feeling I get is that the writers have certain boxes to check to get past the censors, and once they do that, they can make entertainment. As long as they stay away from the no-go areas.
There used to be junk such as "Sky Fighters", a Top Gun movie clone made by a film unit of the PLA. That was so awful that the PLA stopped trying to make entertainment. More than half the Chinese dramas today are historical costume epics, which don't get censored so much. If you like that sort of thing, watch "Princess Agents", which is perhaps the best of that genre.)
What's more striking is what comes out of China's domestic entertainment industry. There are far too many historical costume dramas. Those aren't as heavily censored as modern ones. More modern content looks like it was censored in accordance with the US Television Code of the 1950s. ("The code prohibited the use of profanity, the negative portrayal of family life, irreverence for God and religion, illicit sex, drunkenness and biochemical addiction, presentation of cruelty, detailed techniques of crime, the use of horror for its own sake, and the negative portrayal of law enforcement officials, among others.")[1]
That's close to China's list. China also censors political subjects, to the point that nobody dares get near them in film or TV.
The quality is improving, though. A decade ago, there was "Sky Fighters", which is China's version of "Top Gun". That was produced by a film unit of the People's Liberation Army, and it's as heavy-handed as you might expect.
China is getting better at this, but it's not going well. Too many Chinese movies are period pieces, fantasies, or are not set in China, because the censorship on present-day topics is strict. China's movie censorship is explicit; at the beginning of a movie you'll see the golden dragon logo of the censorship authority. This limits the topics of movies.
There are feature films produced directly by the People's Liberation Army, such as "Sky Fighters". This is the Chinese version of "Top Gun". It's not very good, because the entertainment takes second place to the propaganda. It's possible to do a good feature film which is also propaganda; "Strategic Air Command" with Jimmy Stewart is one such. But China isn't there yet.
Hacker Cinema
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I'm currently struggling through "Our Glamorous Time", which is about the modern fashion industry in mainland China. There are several romances, and the romantic scenes mostly involve food. Business dinners are a big thing. The social scenes involve food buffets. Everybody is thin, except one bad guy, and he gets shot.
(There's no sex. Not even close. This stuff is heavily censored and has blatant propaganda about the Belt and Road Initiative and the COMAC airliner. The feeling I get is that the writers have certain boxes to check to get past the censors, and once they do that, they can make entertainment. As long as they stay away from the no-go areas.
There used to be junk such as "Sky Fighters", a Top Gun movie clone made by a film unit of the PLA. That was so awful that the PLA stopped trying to make entertainment. More than half the Chinese dramas today are historical costume epics, which don't get censored so much. If you like that sort of thing, watch "Princess Agents", which is perhaps the best of that genre.)
What's more striking is what comes out of China's domestic entertainment industry. There are far too many historical costume dramas. Those aren't as heavily censored as modern ones. More modern content looks like it was censored in accordance with the US Television Code of the 1950s. ("The code prohibited the use of profanity, the negative portrayal of family life, irreverence for God and religion, illicit sex, drunkenness and biochemical addiction, presentation of cruelty, detailed techniques of crime, the use of horror for its own sake, and the negative portrayal of law enforcement officials, among others.")[1] That's close to China's list. China also censors political subjects, to the point that nobody dares get near them in film or TV.
The quality is improving, though. A decade ago, there was "Sky Fighters", which is China's version of "Top Gun". That was produced by a film unit of the People's Liberation Army, and it's as heavy-handed as you might expect.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Practices_for_Television_Broadcasters
China is getting better at this, but it's not going well. Too many Chinese movies are period pieces, fantasies, or are not set in China, because the censorship on present-day topics is strict. China's movie censorship is explicit; at the beginning of a movie you'll see the golden dragon logo of the censorship authority. This limits the topics of movies.
There are feature films produced directly by the People's Liberation Army, such as "Sky Fighters". This is the Chinese version of "Top Gun". It's not very good, because the entertainment takes second place to the propaganda. It's possible to do a good feature film which is also propaganda; "Strategic Air Command" with Jimmy Stewart is one such. But China isn't there yet.