Western Vs Chinese cinema

Beijing (Reuters): China's Ministry of Culture has movie-goers seeing red this month, after launching a campaign to promote home-made films celebrating China's revolutionary past and heroic figures at the expense of Hollywood movies. The ''October Golden Autumn Excellent Domestic Film Exhibition Month'', a campaign launched by several state-backed film organisations showcasing 10 local films, has delayed releases of blockbuster Miami Vice and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, local media reported. Miami Vice, starring Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx and Chinese actress Gong Li, would be pushed back to November 1, while World Trade Center would not screen before November 11, Web portal Sina.com reported.

''These 10 movies variously involve weighty revolutionary and historical material, modern city life, heroic figures and children's themes,'' Tong Gang, director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, told the Beijing Times. ''The diversity showcases the rich, colourful and true-to-life state of domestic films.'' The films include titles such as My Long March, China, 1949 and Two Red-Scarf Wrapped Women -- a tragic romance set in a remote, snow-bound community featuring Xin Feng, a widow whose husband was mauled to death by a black bear. Foreign movies have not been squeezed out altogether, however, with three approved for October releases, the Chongqing Morning Post reported. They include Spymate, a Canadian children's film about a super-spy chimpanzee, Final Contract: Death on Delivery -- a made-for-TV movie shot in Germany -- and the The White Planet, a French-Canadian documentary about the North Pole. China currently limits the screening of imported films to about 25 per year, but most Hollywood blockbusters are available in pirate DVD format on street corners and in shops within weeks of their international release. Separately, China's Ministry of Culture has deemed American rapper Jay-Z too offensive to perform on the mainland, the Shanghai Daily reported, cancelling his October 23 concert at Shanghai's Hongkou Football stadium. The ministry withheld permission because ''some of Jay-Z's songs contain too much vulgar language,'' the paper quoted Sun Yun, the concert's promoter, as saying. ''Like many rap stars, Jay-Z is known for his use of profanity, and songs about the ugly side of street life, complete with drug dealers, pimps, and violence,'' the paper said. Jay-Z's cancellation occurs weeks after Robbie Williams, citing health reasons, pulled out of a November 4 concert at the same venue.