We won, I think.
When BVI said last month they were releasing Lust, Caution without Tony Leung’s bits I declared war on them. I was as indignant as I had been in my teens, when I would write in to the broadsheet to complain about avaricious distributors who had cut movies to sell more tickets. No I was more indignant than I had ever been. Didn’t BVI realise a movie like Lust, Caution was more than a movie? A movie that is Eileen Chang, Lee Ang and Tony throwing caution to the wind, a movie that has been the talk of Greater China, a movie that is making front-page news in Shin Min, is not just a movie. It is an event. It is as important this year as Beijing 2008 will be next year. Did BVI think nobody in Singapore would notice the missing bits? Could they be that out of touch? But they were and I couldn’t write in to complain, being inconveniently in the employ of the broadsheet. So I held a council of war with S, who is smarter than me, then sold an idea for a story to KC and DT: Let’s go after BVI, let’s go after every movie-cutting distributor, let’s go to town on every movie that has been sneakily snipped by a distributor. The plan was to get everyone mad so they would get even with the distributors, boycott BVI, boycott Lust, Caution (NC16). “This is your NKF,” I said to DT. But the clock was ticking; he was taking an eternity with the story; I couldn’t leave things to chance. Shin Min had announced to all and sundry on its front page that not a lot was left of Lust, Caution (I heart Shin Min). SF had stated in her review that Lust, Caution (NC16) was a lesser movie (I heart SF - and I checked with the editor, who checked with KF, that the review would make front-page blurbs). I then mass-mailed my boycott appeal, which made the news in a Chinese freesheet and a Chinese broadsheet the day DT’s story was published.
When the movie opened at No.1 it looked like we had lost. Then it fell to No.4, then No.7. Its gross of about $500,000, on 20 prints, is nothing to write home about. Re-releasing a movie is costly. Would BVI be putting money into the R21 re-release if they had been making money in the NC16 release? I think not.
Am I over the moon? No. But it is nice to have a thing that went wrong go right.
5 comments:
There was a lot of coverage on it - but what is somewhat disheartening is that in spite of all the discussions in the papers etc - there are still people who come up to me to tell me they have watched the NC-16 version of "Lust, Caution". And they are indifferent to the fact it's been cut.
We are a culture that has grown so used to censorship, we think it's okay.
One victory on one film - and it took so much effort. I guess the lesson from this is that we can't ever take stuff like this for granted. But it was good to watch the box-office slide for the NC-16. I snickered, because I am immature.
I'm calling my friends out to watch the Uncut version, just to boost its box-office.
Hehehe, congratulations.
It's opened now in Beijing but I refuse to watch the censored version. I have been warned, after comparing the feedback fr a Sporean friend and a Taiwanese friend who both it, cut and uncut respectively.
Fingers crossed that the uncut version will be showing in Sg when I'm back for a week in mid-Nov...
And you're right, it's an event!
DO: yes please do. if lust uncut does make money, that also sends a message to the distributors. like, hey, don't cut r movies and we will pay to watch them in the cinema.
OC: lust uncut is opening on deepavali or something. sf said so in her story. so you should be in time? fingers very very crossed for you.
oh, it was scary, but i found out last week - via facebook, that your email has been forwarded to one of my ex colleague (not me, I did not forward it to her)
she was just mentioning off-handedly that she received an email to boycott "Lust, Caution" and it was signed "ww"
your email boycott appeal "had legs"
we must all go and see it together in the cinema. i will leave juju at home for once, because he is underaged.
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