Han Geng and Jérémie Elkaïm pose for some promotional photos for “Seek McCartney.” (Photo : SMG Shanghai TV Official Channel)
Seeking something rare this coming winter? Then step inside a movie house.
Two men sharing a romantic relationship are the principal characters of director Wang Chao’s upcoming movie, “Seek McCartney,” which surprisingly got the nod of the powers that be.
“This is a small step for the film department, and a big step for the members of the film industry,” Wang said through a Weibo post.
Chinese singer-actor Han Geng, 31, and French actor-screenwriter-director Jeremie Elkaim, 37, star in the Chinese-French co-production slated for release in winter, reported the Global Times.
Filmmaker Fan Popo told AFP that showing “Seek McCartney” doesn’t guarantee that more movies tackling homosexuality will hit cinemas in the country in the coming days.
Fan, an LGBT rights activist and author of “Happy Together: Complete Record of a Hundred Queer Films,” directed the 80-minute documentary, "Mama Rainbow," about how six mothers handled having a homosexual child. Four of the mothers interviewed were from Beijing, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and Shanghai.
The documentary could be viewed via Youku, Sohu’s 56.com and other similar sites in 2012, but by December of the same year was removed from all video sites allegedly in adherence to a regulation by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), reported Caixin Online.
Fan, through his lawyer Wang Qinshi, requested SAPPRFT in February to provide an official explanation behind the cancellation.
"Mama Rainbow," supported by Beijing Gender Health Education Institute; China Queer Independent Films; Queer Comrades; and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), premiered at the Beijing Independent Film Festival in Aug. 2012.
It was shown at the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in Nov. 2012 and at the Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival in Oct. 2013.
Foreign audience saw it in 2013 during the Boston LGBT Film Festival (U.S.), Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival (India), OUTFEST Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival (U.S.), Vancouver Queer Film Festival (Canada) and ReelWorld Film Festival (Canada).
Cao Baoping’s 2015 award-winning crime drama, “The Dead End,” showed lead actors Deng Chao (“The Four” series) and Jackie Lui (“The Legend of Dunhuang”) in one scene doing a French kiss.
An adaptation of Xu Yigua’s 2010 novel, “Sunspots” premiered at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival in June.
Taiwanese superstar Brigitte Lin narrates how a random meeting between a male prostitute (Stephen Fung) and a cop (Daniel Wu) led to a romance in Yonfan’s 1998 drama, “Bishonen.” It was screened again during the 16th Busan International Film Festival in 2011.
Some movies got lucky, some did not.
Ang Lee’s 2005 critically acclaimed and award-winning blockbuster romance, “Brokeback Mountain,” was not welcomed in the country. It tells the story of two cowboys (played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger who passed on in 2008) who fell for each other.
Stanley Kwan’s 2001 drama “Lan Yu” and Zhang Yuan’s 1996 film adaptation of Wang Xiaobo’s short story, “East Palace, West Palace” (also known as “Behind the Palace Gates” and “Behind the Forbidden City”), also met the same fate.
What’s the next gay-themed movie to be screened in the country and what’s the next one to be banned?
