Ratings website accused of attacking govt
Director slams Douban of ‘sucking up to foreign movies’
A Chinese film director posted online a letter to the China Film Bureau on Wednesday, calling for an investigation into the review platform Douban, which gave the director’s film record low ratings.
The platform “is manipulating the domestic film ratings market and the public,” and that “the platform’s arrogant and condescending attitude resembles gangsters and is poisoning China’s film industry,” Bi Zhifei, the director, said on his Sina Weibo Wednesday.
He also accused Douban of “sucking up to foreign movies while treading on domestic films,” because the CEO allegedly possesses a foreign passport and the company is foreign-owned.
Among the negative comments, Bi said there were also severe slanderous attacks on some government organizations, such as the Central Committee of the Communist Young League.
“Douban has become a bastion of cyber violence and online rumors under the guise of liberty and democracy,” Bi said in the letter.
Bi’s film Pure Hearts: Into Chinese Showbiz received a historic low rating on Douban, 2 out of 10, when it was screened in September last year.
It was pulled off four days after because of the bad ratings.
Bi sued Douban in January to “safeguard his legal rights.”
Douban told the Global Times on Thursday that it will hold these detractors legally accountable.
“Douban’s film ratings platform always allows for public reaction to a film,” it said.
But Douban did not deny having foreign-owned capital.
Bi, who graduated from Peking University in 2015 with a doctorate in film, had spent 12 years on the movie and claimed it was a “work of art.”
Notwithstanding Douban, the film also received tons of negative comments on China’s main social media platforms. It was also rated 1 out of 10 on iMdb.
Bi was awarded the Golden Broom Award,” China’s Golden Raspberry Award, for most disappointing director in March.
Luo Ping, a media expert at the Communication University of China said that as a public rating platform, Douban should also be responsible for examining and screening netizens’ comments, and help the healthy development of Chinese film industry.
In December 2016, officials from the State Administration of Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), China’s broadcast watchdog, met with Maoyan and Douban over the low ratings of domestic films.
Despite the controversy, “Douban is still the most authoritative ratings platform, and if a film gets high marks on the platform, it is the film’s best asset,” Shi Wenxue, a Beijing-based film critic, told the Global Times. The public rates films on Douban, not the platform itself, Shi said. “China has strict standards for foreign films, so it’s good if the public praises many of these films.