Pooh Reignites Hong Kong Film Censorship

After a microbudget slasher was yanked from cinemas, signs point to political pressure from Beijing

Oh, bother. What has Winnie-the-Pooh gotten himself into this time? First, the character got himself transformed into the murderous antagonist of Winnie-thePooh: Blood and Honey, a microbudget U.K. slasher film that went viral and scored theatrical distribution across the globe. Then, when the film landed in Hong Kong, Pooh became the surprise source of a censorship controversy involving none less than Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The $50,000 movie by prolific Brit horror banner Jagged Edge Productions has already made $5.5 million following launches in 40 markets. The film was set for release in 32 cinemas in Hong Kong and Macau on March 23, courtesy of local indie distributor VII Pillars Entertainment. But two days prior to the opening, the plug was pulled. Ray Fong, VII Pillars’ general manager, says that the film had been fully approved for release by Hong Kong’s

Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (OFNAA). “We are not sure what happened,” Fong says. Meanwhile, local film group Moviematic said that the film was pulled for “technical reasons.”

But the character of Winnie-the-Pooh has been the improbable object of Chinese censorship ever since a 2013 meme likened Xi to the bear. By 2018, all mentions and searches of Pooh were frequently blocked from Chinese social media. The producers of Blood and Honey reject the “technical issues” explanation for the cancellation — as do China experts. Adds Stanley Rosen, a professor at USC who specializes in the Chinese film industry: “I don’t believe it for a second.”

In 2021, Hong Kong’s film censorship system was revised to include bans, which snagged a 2023 Pooh slasher film.