BEIJING, Jan. 20 -- Ang Lee's Golden Globe best drama winner ¡°Brokeback Mountain¡± may not be screened on the Chinese mainland, a source from China Film Group, the only film importer on the mainland, said Thursday.

    The source said it is due to its sensitive topic: gay love. Adapted from a short story by ¡°The Shipping News¡± novelist E. Annie Proulx, ¡°Brokeback Mountain¡± is about a ranch-hand and a rodeo cowboy (played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) who meet one summer in Wyoming and form a bond that spans 20 years. Some Western media critics call it an epic gay romance.

    The film is rated ¡°R¡± for ¡°restricted¡± in the United States, which means that children under 17 are not admitted unless accompanied by parents or adult guardian. As the mainland has not adopted a movie rating system, the film could not possibly be approved by the film censors, said the source.

    Since the government has an import quota of 20 foreign films a year, the China Film Group imports more commercial blockbusters than art-house movies like ¡°Brokeback Mountain,¡± according to a staff member with Huaxia Film Distribution Co. Huaxia is one of the two distributors of foreign films on the mainland. ¡°Although ¡®Brokeback Mountain¡¯ won international acclaim, it does not mean its box office will be successful on the mainland,¡± said the source.


(Source: Shenzhen Daily)