State media attacks China movie sites for bad reviews

CHINESE state media have taken popular online movie review sites to task for giving three new domestic blockbusters failing marks, accusing them of trying to undermine the domestic cinema industry by manipulating ratings.

Foreign films are in high demand at the world’s second-biggest box office, a fact that has long annoyed Beijing, which both covets Hollywood’s global reach and economic power and fears that it is exposing domestic audiences to pernicious “Western” thinking.

The number of overseas movies given releases each year is strictly limited, and an opinion piece on the smartphone app of the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, said some influential commentators had made “malicious and irresponsible comments that seriously damaged” domestic films.

The piece, published on Tuesday, questioned whether two Chinese film review websites – Douban and Maoyan – were manipulating domestic film ratings by giving them exceptionally low scores. “Five-star” comments were deleted, while domestic films received thousands of “one-star” ratings even before their midnight premieres ended, state broadcaster CCTV alleged separately. Following the remarks, Maoyan cancelled part of its film ranking function.

Internet users, however, took the opportunity to write some reviews of their own, bombarding state media with snide remarks about the government’s terrible taste in movies and restrictive attitudes towards free speech.

“You won’t even let us say a movie is terrible,” one commenter said. Douban’s CEO, too, objected to the characterisation of the site, saying the reviews accurately effect audience opinion. — AFP

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