Time Travel Is Banned In Chinese Movies

But guys can fly all over the place doing Kung Fu? That you can believe but Time Travel is subversive. Oh I so want to get my time machine working just so I could go back in time and slap someone. Someone in the Chinese Government. Yeh, I said it, Chairman Mao. I don't know why this annoys me so much when there is so much to love about Chinese culture. I just can't stand anything that tries to supress human imagination.

http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/09/06/time-travel-is-banned-in-chinese-movies/

In 2011, the Chinese government passed guidelines that would largely prohibit any time travel plot devices in television and movies. According to the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, time travel represents “ambiguous values” and “lack of active ideological significance.”

What the hell does that even mean?

In March 2011, the Chinese government’s State Administration of Radio Film and Television issued a new set of guidelines, which strongly disapproved of “fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques, even propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking.”

So no Twilight? They might be onto something here. They just want happy movies and about happy peasants working insanely long hours in a cell phone sweat shop as virtual slaves to the western companies that exploit and imprison cheap Chinese labor.

One of the most oppressive governments in the world, China releases only a small handful of Western films each year. However, given their enormous population and emerging middle class, it is to every filmmaker’s financial advantage to play ball. In 2012, the American Bruce Willis film Looper went on to massive success in China despite relying heavily on time travel. Unlike most films, Looper features characters from the future traveling to the present, and features no affects or criticisms of Chinese culture, which may have been why it was approved for release in that country. However, a seemingly innocent film like Back to the Future, which featured a trip into the past (and the main character consorting with his mother), would likely be frowned upon as it alters destiny.

It's a distinction without a difference. Of course if they show their historical past then guys can fly around and kill each other by the thousands on burning ships in the middle of an also burning river. That is okay.

You ever seen Curse of the Golden Flower? It's got is flying armies elements but at it's heart it's a really depraved story of hatred and revenge without the Forbidden City. It's as dark as things get but that is okay. Just no Marty and Doc Brown in the old west.