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Megan: China Kills Dark Knight for Buying American
The Dark Knight is officially not coming to China. Warner Bros said "cultural sensitivities" along with "prerelease conditions" blocked the Mainland release. Meanwhile, international media are guessing that the portrayal of a Hong Kong mobster and a cameo by Edison Chen, a Hong Kong celebrity who recently made headlines for the exposure of his racy private photos, killed the film’s approval.
Personally, I pin the rejection on this:
"Carbon fiber, .28 Caliber, made in China. If you want to kill a public servant, you should buy American."
Spoken in the film by Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent, the words can be thrown in the pile with the wave of media reports about defective products that has been looming over Chinese companies.
Every country, including China, should be held accountable for their dangerous goods, but coverage of China-based problems has been particularly heavy of late. As such, I would wager that it was more than a coincidence that Chinese media reports out just before the Warner Bros statement highlighted problems not with exports but imports: 57,000 tons of U.S. soybeans "tainted by pesticides" and 3,108 Daimler autos recalled for "problems with air bags, brakes and spare wheels."
Even in light of tensions surrounding international trade, however, some might argue that China should be proud to feature The Dark Knight. After all, how else could people appreciate the irony that the district attorney who says "buy American" is also the man who loses his fiancé and becomes a maniacal two-faced villain?
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Megan Ko edits reports, interviews and blogs.
