I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone poster censored
January 18th, 2007 by Lu Pin
Director Tsai Ming-Liang’s new film I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone is about to release in Taiwan. However Taiwan’s Government Information Office (GIO) censored the poster as well as classifed the movie as Restricted (only 18 and over are permitted to watch the movie), which caused objection from the director and supporters.
GIO’s ruling means the poster in question, which is from one scene of the movie, is prohibited from being displayed in public. GIO cited the reason as the image on the poster may encourage the recent trend that teenages take pictures of their own body parts and post them on to the internet. GIO also classified the movies as Restricted because of some explicit sexual scenes.
The decision of censoring the poster infuriates the director, who was cited saying he won’t give in this time. The poster of his previous movie, The Wayward Cloud, was also censored and the director had to compromise. He pointed out there is no sexual contact in that scene and GIO’s decision is knee-jerking. He was also reported to accuse GIO being double standarded. Using Zhang Yimou’s new film Curse of the Golden Flowers as an example, he questioned what critiria GIO used to decide which part of the body is all right to be shown. His supporters also questioned its Restricted classification.
The censoring of the poster, however, could be meaningless because it only covers display in public space. The image is allowed to be sold or handed out as poster or postcard.
