ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD Has Been Cancelled In China
If you're planning to catch Tarantino's ninth film during its Chinese theatrical run, you'll have to wait a while: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood's release in the Middle Kingdom has been "indefinitely put on hold" according to The Hollywood Reporter. The reasoning behind the cancellation is a bit unclear, since Chinese officials haven't issued any real details (as censors are wont to do). Although, sources close to the Chinese Film Bureau and Bona (OUATIH's Chinese co-financier) claim that Bruce Lee's daughter made a direct appeal to Chinese censors to alter her father's portrayal.
Whatever the reason behind it, the cancellation is clearly a major blow to Sony's box office prospects, as the studio was banking on the OUATIH's Chinese release to bring the film's $366 million current worldwide totals over $400 million. This is even worse news for the Bona Film Group, the Beijing financier who owns a stake in the film's worldwide box office and the Chinese distribution rights. Like the rest of Hollywood in 2019, Sony and Bona need their film to be released in China, so they're probably working with the censors this very moment to produce an admissible cut of the film.
If it's true that China’s National Film Administration blocked OUATIH because of its portrayal of Bruce Lee, then this brings the ongoing controversy surrounding said portrayal into a whole new messed up territory. Regardless of how you feel about the way Tarantino depicted the martial arts legend, demanding that the film be banned or altered to suit your preferences is a gross overeach, crossing over into the realm of censorship. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that nobody who "cancelled" the film on Twitter wished for OUATIH to get literally cancelled. But here we are.
