I don't know about you, but every so often I like seeing a horror movie. Or even better, a Godzilla movie. Nothing beats watching a rubber dinosaur crush downtown Tokyo while Japanese people point up and scream in horribly dubbed English.If you're an athlete, and also like these same kind of movies, you're going to be in trouble when you get to Beijing for the Olympics.
China has added horror films, and Godzilla movies, to its list of banned video and audio content in an intensified crackdown ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Producers have around three weeks to look through their tapes for "horror" and report it to authorities, the General Administration of Press and Publications said.
Offending content included "wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror"
This brings up an interesting question though. What about when Godzilla fought Mechagodzilla? Godzilla actually saved Tokyo in the process. Personally, I think he should get bonus points for that. I say we celebrate heroic monsters, rather than ban them.
Anyway, the new guidelines aim to "control and cleanse the negative effect these items have on society, and to prevent horror, violent, cruel publications from entering the market through official channels and to protect adolescents' psychological health."
Excellent work China, get rid of the fake horror, but keep the real horror going - by which I mean human rights violations.
more
