Mulan is a 2020 USA / Canada / Hong Kong children's action adventure by Niki Caro. Starring Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen and Li Gong.
A young Chinese maiden disguises herself as a male
warrior in order to save her father.
China is very much looking forward to the wide distribution of the new live action Disney film Mulan. But is not so keen on letting Chinese people know that the rest of the world is talking about the
films links to the repression of muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Partly shot in Xinjiang, Mulan's credits included thanks to the authorities there, which prompted calls overseas for a boycott of the movie.
Now Chinese censors have told local media
outlets not to carry any news stories about the western backlash to the movie.
Carpenter, King and Kane Hodder... genre royalty ushers in Horror Channel s September line-up of prime-time premieres, including the UK TV premiere of outlandish Brit Zom Com Shed of the Dead , starring Ewen MacIntosh, Lauren Socha, Emily
Booth, Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley, Michael Berryman and Brian Blessed, followed by the Channel premieres of hard-core space thriller John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars , starring Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Jason Statham and Pam Grier, and A Good
Marriage , a gripping psychological thriller based on the Stephen King novella.
There are also UK TV premieres for supernatural heist thriller The Vault , starring James Franco, and Blumhouse frightener Visions, plus
Channel premieres for Clive Tonge's intensely demonic jolter Mara , starring Olga Kurylenko, creepy alien-zombie adventure Night of the Creeps , and the powerful supernatural angel-avenger Legion , starring Paul Bettany and Dennis
Quaid.
Cuties ( Mignonnes) is a 2020 France comedy drama by Maïmouna Doucouré. Starring Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni and Esther Gohourou.
Amy, an 11-year-old girl, joins a group of dancers
named "the cuties" at school, and rapidly grows aware of her burgeoning femininity - upsetting her mother and her values in the process.
The Turkish government has said it will order Netflix to block local access to the
movie Cuties. The country's TV censor claims the film contains images of child exploitation. Turkey's Family Ministry had previously said the film may cause children to be open to negligence and abuse, and negatively impact their psychosocial
development.
Cuties is due to launch in the country on September 9. The movie was at the center of a furor last month when Netflix launched the film's international poster, which was widely criticized for sexualizing children. Netflix quickly
apologized and removed the offending artwork, but not before the film was lynched on social media.
Update: BBFC rated
10th September 2020.
The Netflix UK release has been BBFC 15 rated uncut for rude humour,
threat, dangerous behaviour, bullying, violence.
The New Zealand Office of Film and Literature Classification recommended Netflix make Cuties 16+ with a warning note: Violence, sexual references, bullying and offensive language.
W4Free is a Free Video on Demand Portal. Movies, television series, crime stories, Reality TV, W4Free has something for all. W4Free viewers see a few well-placed adverts, W4Free do the rest and entertain all its viewers for free.
Mulan is a 2020 USA / Canada / Hong Kong children's action adventure by Niki Caro. Starring Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen and Li Gong.
A young Chinese maiden disguises herself as a male
warrior in order to save her father.
Disney's Mulan is facing calls for a boycott in some Asian countries. Liu Yifei, the live-action film's star, first angered fans last year with comments supporting Hong Kong's police, who have been
accused of violence towards pro-democracy protesters.
Now Thai and Taiwanese activists are also telling people not to see Mulan.
During a period of unrest Chinese-born actress Liu Yifei - who's an American citizen - shared a post from the
government-run Beijing newspaper People's Daily on Weibo saying:
I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong.
The Nigerian state of Lagos has its own film censorship board has suspended the chief censor for making claiming a non-existent 5% tax on digital platforms including Netflix and Iroko TV.
Executive Secretary of the State Film and Video Censors Board,
Bamidele Balogun's suspension was handed down by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. In a statement, the government denied levying the tax explaining that the Executive Security acted alone without its authorization. The statement reads:
It reads in part: There is no levy on audio and visual contents of all physical and digital platforms in Lagos State. The Executive Secretary, Lagos State Film and Video Censors Board, Mr. Bamidele Balogun, is said to have announced a
five percent levy.
The government hereby dissociates itself from the said announcement in the media. The Executive Secretary, who was not authorised to make such an announcement, has been suspended, pending an administrative
enquiry.
Distributors of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure add ludicrous PC caption about outdated stereotypes
3rd
September 2020
2nd September 2020. Thanks to Mark
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a 1989 USA comedy Sci-Fi romance by Stephen Herek. Starring Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter and George Carlin.
Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) and Bill S. Preston, Esquire (Alex Winter), are in danger of flunking school most heinously if they fail their history exam, and if they do they'll have to break up their totally
bodacious band, WYLD STALLYNS. No way!
Mark writes:
I've just bought the new Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure DVD and can report that there is a caption added to the film warning viewers of outdated
stereotypes that some people may find offensive.
Basically, we can expect to see it more on DVD's and Blu Ray's, now.
The distributors are Studiocanal. And no doubt their virtue signalling will prove more
divisive than curative of social ills.
Update: Flash trigger
3rd
September 2020. Thanks to Ben
Flash Gordon had the same warning which seems... extra unnecessary because it was already had a BBFC warning for discriminatory stereotypes. I don't see a problem with these warnings if it
means the film itself is uncut.
The trigger warning seems related to the presumption that the Emperor Ming character is poking fun at the Chinese. The warning reads:
Gavin Salkeld's excellent video series, that details censor cuts from around the world, is set to start its 6th season.
And this time round we are taking requests. So if there's a movie out there that you would like covered, get on over to
the cuttingedgeseries Facebook Page to join the debate.
The series runs on YouTube, so ironically modern media censorship rules may restrict the scope for
choice in highlighting the censorship of traditional media.
And if you have forgotten what films we've already covered, here's a reminder:
Directors UK, the trade association for screen directors in Britain, suggested some miserable alternatives to avoid sex scenes with physical interaction while social distancing is required, in an update to its Directing Nudity and Simulated Sex
guidelines.
The guidelines suggest that characters could be shown fixing their own clothes/re-dressing after the event or limbs could be depicted moving under bedclothes, while another option is to show the closing of a bedroom door and leave the
action to the viewer's imagination.
Directors are encouraged to find inspiration by revisiting classic films such as It Happened One Night or Casablanca , which were made under the Hays Code that was introduced in the 1930s and
prohibited the depiction of sex on screen in Hollywood.
Bill Anderson, who has directed episodes of Doctor Who and was part of the team who has worked on the guidelines. He said that directors and writers would have to come up with
different ways to show intimacy, and he encouraged programme makers to question whether a sex scene is absolutely necessary.
For productions that require sex scenes, alternative ideas from the guidelines include motion capture and digital
performances, green screen or animation to composite the required encounter and another suggested option is casting real life couples who won't need to socially distance.
Update: No Sex
Please, We're British Filmmakers
We've said it before, and we'll probably say it again, but there is little doubt that moralisers and neo-puritans are rubbing their hands together at the possibilities that Covid-19 has presented them.
Blazing Saddles is currently streaming on HBO Max, along with a preaching introduction that automatically plays before the Mel Brooks classic begins.
An HBO Max spokesprat told The Hollywood Reporter:
The intro
was added to ensure that the film was put into the proper social context,
TCM host and University of Chicago cinema and media studies professor Jacqueline Stewart provides the intro to Blazing Saddles. She says:
As the storyline implies the issue of race is front and center in Blazing Saddles. And racist language and attitudes pervade the film. But those attitudes are espoused by characters who are portrayed here as explicitly small-minded,
ignorant bigots. The real, and much more enlightened perspective, is provided by the main characters played by Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder.
Offsite comment: Don't even think about cancelling Blazing Saddles
Cuties (Mignonnes) is a 2020 France comedy drama by Maïmouna Doucouré. Starring Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni and Esther Gohourou.
Amy, an 11-year-old girl, joins a group of dancers
named "the cuties" at school, and rapidly grows aware of her burgeoning femininity - upsetting her mother and her values in the process.
Netflix has removed a promotional image which showed girls posing in skimpy outfits in a
new film called Cuties. The poster for the French drama, along with a trailer, were received from a little online 'outrage' and a petition calling for Netflix to drop it. A petition claiming it sexualizes an 11-year-old for the viewing pleasure of
paedophiles attracted 25,000 signatures.
The film itself is not a Netflix production, just a film that was set to be shown on the service. The award-winning drama follows an 11-year-old who joins a dance group. Its maker says it is meant to tackle the
issue of sexualisation of young girls.
Netflix has now said it was deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork. Netflix told BBC News:
This was not an accurate representation of the film so the image and description has
been updated.
The company later tweeted:
We're deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties. It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which won an
award at Sundance. We've now updated the pictures and description.
But director Maimouna Doucoure has explained that the story aims to highlight how social media pushes girls to mimic sexualised imagery without fully understanding
what lies behind it or the dangers involved.
Cuties ( Mignonnes) is a 2020 France comedy drama by Maïmouna Doucouré. 
W4Free is a Free Video on Demand Portal. Movies, television series, crime stories, Reality TV, W4Free has something for all. W4Free viewers see a few well-placed adverts, W4Free do the rest and entertain all its viewers for free. 
The Nigerian state of Lagos has its own film censorship board has suspended the chief censor for making claiming a non-existent 5% tax on digital platforms including Netflix and Iroko TV. 
