Crime Crackdown is inspired by the real-life event of a gang leader who evaded justice for almost twenty years due to corruption of the judicial system. This may turn out to be a solid drama, depending on how much the censors have edited the final product. Starring Sun Honglei, Zhang Yixing, Liu Yijun and Wu Yue, the drama is scheduled to premiere within the next couple of months. [Extended synopsis]
Strict censorship causes scriptwriters to play it safe as they become afraid of violating the rules. As a result, everyone just writes the same type of stories and don’t put out new ideas anymore. If this issue persists, the entire industry will eventually stagnate.
For example, the supernatural genre have been completely chopped up by the regulators.
The genre itself is not dangerous to society so it being restricted in this matter is bizarre.
A number of dramas over the past years have been “edited” by NRTA to the point where the plot stopped making sense and the entire show flopped. All the work done by the cast and crew went down the toilet.
No one is expecting China to follow the Hollywood formula. But the regulators do need to give writers more space for their imagination and creativity to flourish. Red tape is not going to help the industry grow. FYI, some netizens in China share the same concerns regarding what NRTA is doing.
I am betting it won’t stagnate at all. Their own people will find their way around it or gradually changed it according to changes in time & society.
What is harmful or not is for them to judge based on their own culture and beliefs. In my country, the serious supernatural (depiction of evil) is banned too. The light hearted ones like zombies, flying ghosts, fairies, gods etc are ok – you will find plenty of these in Chinese dramas too.
As for those who got their dramas chopped to the extent they don’t make sense anymore, then I say they only have themselves to blame. The rules did not appear overnight; they are published and public. If they are in this business, they should know where the boundaries are, what can be pushed and what cannot, whether the time is right or not. And if they choose not to be clever about the script or the editing, then they take their own chances.
I actually do not agree that red tape stifles creativity. In fact, what I have observed is that red tape makes people even more creative. Every naughty kid knows this.
The Chinese, as a millennia-old civilization was based on plenty of rules and red tapes, culturally, socially and governing styles. And yet, the Chinese has flourished into one of the most versatile, creative and resilient peoples.
And for us viewers, we can choose to watch or not to watch. There’s no need for us to tell their authorities what to do.
I think the industry is developing very well. It has a world wide market now. If you mean “developed” into those levels of western standards, where anything goes from explicit sexual content to extreme violence, then no, thank you. This is usually the reason why viewers rant about China’s censorship rules; not for any altruistic reasons.
Sure, it might hamper some areas, but on balance, I am happy that someone is setting the boundaries and overseeing them. As a person who watches a whole lot of Chinese dramas & films, I don’t see any ban in tackling social issues. People are creative in getting around rules and getting the message across.
And why should you be so concerned over Chinese censorship rules & their industry? If you think just because of that, they produced crap dramas, then don’t watch.
Every country has its own rules. In my country, the censorship rules are similar, and even more stringent in some aspects.
With all the freedom in Hollywood, I don’t see that their content is overall far superior than anyone else’s either. In fact, the volume of crap also proportionately increased.
Sadly, NRTA is doing more harm than good. Their overregulation of media content is hampering the development of the industry. Only way for things to change is if the seniors in the office step down and get replaced by younger ppl (who are usually more open minded).