China wary of S. Korean film
South Korea’s biggest movie at the box office, about a tyrannical king and his two court jesters, has been banned from Chinese theaters because it has subtle gay themes, a South Korean movie executive said Tuesday.
“The movie ‘King and the Clown’ could not pass the deliberation process in China because of the homosexual code and sexually explicit language in the movie,” an official at South Korean entertainment company CJ said from its Beijing office.
The movie has taken in more than $85 million in South Korea and sold about 12 million tickets in a country with a population of 48 million.
Homosexuality was considered a mental disorder in China as recently as 2001 and is still a sensitive subject.
In the movie, which finished its run in South Korea earlier this year, the relations among the king and his two jesters are not well defined and there are no sex scenes, but a romance is implied.
The CJ official, who asked not to be named, said the company did receive permission from Chinese authorities to distribute the movie in China on DVD.
China’s film censor, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, was unavailable for comment.
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