HK cinema braces itself for censorship amid dissent purge

HONG KONG • Once renowned for world-class cinema, Hong Kong's film industry was already struggling before the latest hurdle - Chinese mainland-style censorship as the authorities take their purge of dissent into the cultural sphere.

Filmmaker Mok Kwan-ling's heart sank when the e-mail from the government censors dropped. In June, the authorities announced all films would now be scrutinised for "national security" breaches. Mok's was the first known to have fallen foul of these rules.

For months, she had been working on her debut film, a 27-minute drama inspired by the young couples she encountered during huge democracy protests two years ago. It tells the story of a young woman meeting her boyfriend's parents after he is arrested for taking part in the protests. The boyfriend's mother is opposed to the movement but his father sympathetic.

The Cantonese title Zap Uk (literally "clean up the house") refers to how friends and family would often remove incriminating items once a loved one was arrested.

But Mok said Hong Kong's film censors were not happy with what was submitted and ordered her to make 14 cuts. Among the changes demanded were cutting a line from the father saying the son was a first aid volunteer who was "only out there to save the people", and deleting a scene where the same character, a truck driver, charges protesters a discounted fare.

The censors also demanded that the film be renamed and carry a warning that it shows criminal offences.

"I thought the story was rather balanced by presenting voices of two sides," Mok told Agence France-Presse. "It turned out that one particular side is not allowed to be heard."

Mok felt the cuts would leave her film "devoid of essence and sense", so she has put it aside for now. "My film happened to be the first but it won't be the last," she warned.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong was known as "The Hollywood of the Far East", with a cast of globally recognised stars like Chow Yun-fat and auteurs such as Wong Kar-wai. The golden age of Cantonese cinema has long been eclipsed by the rise of mainland Chinese and South Korean films.

But the city maintained a vibrant indie scene, shielded by free speech protections that allowed directors to tackle subjects that would be untouchable on the authoritarian mainland. Those days are now over.

China is rapidly remoulding Hong Kong in its own image after the democracy protests, and films are just the latest in a long list of targets. On top of the new scrutiny rules, a law making its way through the legislature will expand censorship to films previously given clearance as well as tighten the punishment for breaches.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE