Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained looks set to be released in China with minor retouches to tone down the colour and impact of the film’s ubiquitous use of blood and gore, it has been revealed.
The Weinstein Company announced last month that the director’s Oscar-winning ultra-violent paean to the spaghetti western would be the film-maker’s first movie to be released officially in the world’s most populous nation. Tarantino himself is said to be overseeing a process that will moderate the hue of blood spatters and lower the extent of their proliferation.
“What we call bloodshed and violence is just a means of serving the purpose of the film, and these slight adjustments will not affect the basic quality of the film – such as tuning the blood to a darker colour, or lowering the height of the splatter of blood,” Zhang Miao of the Chinese branch of distributor Sony told the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper. “Quentin knew how to adjust that, and it’s necessary that he is the one to do it. You can give him suggestions, but it must be him who does [the tuning].” He added that the changes were seen by Tarantino as “progress not compromise”, which was necessary to help his movie translate for “different markets”.
The news suggests Django Unchained will emerge on 11 April at its full 165-minute length in Chinese cinemas. Recent Hollywood films that have been forced to cut offending sections or had them removed by the authorities include Bond movie Skyfall and fantasy opus Cloud Atlas. The release of both curtailed movies – Cloud Atlas lost a whopping 38 minutes – attracted complaints from local cinemagoers over the extent of censorship.
It was not clear whether China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) will take a look at Django Unchained in the wake of Tarantino’s alterations, though reports last month said the film had been passed for release providing minor cuts were made. Authorities appear to be warming to the US film-maker: a one-off screening of his film Jackie Brown is reportedly being hosted by the state-backed Chinese Film Archive on the day of Django Unchained’s release, with the Tarantino-produced Robert Rodriguez comic-book adaptation Sin City debuting a day later through the same organisation.