{"id":205345,"date":"2024-05-09T07:30:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T23:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hong-kong\/?p=205345"},"modified":"2024-11-20T20:43:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T12:43:22","slug":"banned-movies-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hong-kong\/banned-movies-hong-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"No bleeps here! Discover hidden gems from the lexicon of banned movies in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"

As one of the most internationally lauded film industries in the world, Hong Kong has a layered and complex cinematic history. Although the blood-chilling thrills from Cantonese horror films<\/a> may suggest that the city\u2019s movie censors aren\u2019t as nitpicky as others, there is still a deep catalogue of features that had been barred from local cinemas<\/a>. With a diverse range of standards held by the 852 over the decades, Hong Kong films<\/a> have been slapped with bans for everything from extreme violence to implied political allegories. While some of them have been released after substantial edits and cuts, a select few remain eternally on the list of banned movies in Hong Kong. Would you consider giving them a watch?<\/p>\n

Explore the catalogue of banned movies in Hong Kong<\/h2>\n

1. Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980)<\/h3>\n

Although now critically lauded as a cinematic gem from the Hong Kong New Wave era, legendary filmmaker<\/a> Tsui Hark\u2019s Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind<\/em> ran into early problems getting past film censors. A nihilistic crime-thriller following three trouble-making teenage boys and a sadistic young girl, who accidentally stumble into the affairs of a foreign crime ring, the film was immediately banned due to its violence (as well as references to the 1967 Hong Kong riots). While an edited and restructured version was released theatrically, it still contains a high level of violent content \u2013 including a few gruesome scenes involving animal torture. As is the case for many banned movies in Hong Kong and the world during the 70s and 80s, some original film footage is thought to be completely lost even from the uncut version.<\/p>\n

2. The Coldest Winter in Peking (1981)<\/h3>\n
\"banned
The Coldest Winter in Peking<\/i> uses the Taiwanese version of Beijing in its title (Image: Central Motion Pictures)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Taiwanese historical drama The Coldest Winter in Peking<\/em> is said to have run in cinemas for just a single day before joining the ranks of banned movies in Hong Kong. With its narrative of a foreign-educated scientist returning to Mainland China only to suffer during the Cultural Revolution, the film was considered strongly anti-communist. As such, movie censors in Mainland China as well as British Hong Kong slapped The Coldest Winter in Peking<\/em> with a ban due to its intensely political content.<\/p>\n

3. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (1970)<\/h3>\n

Patrick Lung Kong\u2019s volatile 1970s flick Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow<\/em> has undergone several notable periods of resurgence since its initial release \u2013 albeit due to unfortunate real-world circumstances, such as the SARS outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic. Loosely based on French philosopher Albert Camus\u2019 novel The Plague<\/em>, the film follows the outbreak of a mystery virus that quickly tears through and devastates Hong Kong\u2019s local community. Largely due to politically sensitive allegories and class conflicts depicted in the fictional chaos, calls for bans led to heavy censorship of the original material. Although institutions like the Hong Kong Film Archive continue to find ways to preserve the film as much as possible, the only known copy that remains today is a drastically cut-down version with poor sound and image quality.<\/p>\n

4. China Behind (1974)<\/h3>\n