Movie distributors in Hong Kong and Macau have canceled screenings of a British-made horror film featuring the popular children's character Winnie the Pooh, who is banned from China's tightly controlled internet due to a supposed resemblance to Communist Party supreme leader Xi Jinping.
“Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” was scheduled to debut in Hong Kong on Thursday after passing the government film censorship process, but was suddenly pulled from movie theaters without explanation, prompting widespread speculation that it was linked to the banning of Winnie the Pooh from the Chinese internet after a series of memes likening him to Xi went viral.
"It is with great regret that we announce that the scheduled release of ‘Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey in Hong Kong’ and Macau on March 23 has been canceled," Hong Kong distribution company VII Pillars Entertainment said via its Facebook page.
"We are incredibly sorry for the disappointment and inconvenience," it said, but gave no reason for the decision.
People commenting under the post seemed to assume political censorship was in play, however.
"They keep saying that we have freedom of speech!" wrote Wong_FC. "Such freedom of creative and journalistic expression, I don't think."
Brian Pun commented "Fragile city," while Jin Do San said: "I was going to try to understand China's logic, but now I'm going to give up."
"We're already at the point in Hong Kong where we can't even watch a cult movie," commented Norman Poon, while Sherman Tse quipped ironically: "We gotta tell good stories about Hong Kong!"
A draconian National Security Law imposed on Hong Kong by the Chinese Communist Party in 2020 has sharply curtailed the freedoms that the city was promised under the “One Country, Two Systems,” arrangement under which Beijing took over the former British colony.
The independent slasher flick is a horror retelling of the children's books by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard in which an alienated Pooh and his animal companions turn on their human owner Christopher Robin after he abandoned them to go to college.
Strong online interest
The $100,000 movie had been set for a one-night screening in the United Kingdom, but has begun screening globally after garnering a huge amount of online interest, and had been due to premiere at more than 30 movie theaters across Hong Kong on Thursday.
Kevin Yeung, secretary for culture, sports and tourism, said the decision to pull the film was taken by the distributor, and not by government film censors.
"As far as I know, it passed its inspection and was rated as a Category 3 movie [restricted to people over 18]," Yeung told reporters on Wednesday.
"The movie was released, and the publisher decided not to screen it in Hong Kong for the time being – that was their decision," he said.
An official who answered the phone at the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration on Wednesday confirmed that it had certified the movie for release, but declined to comment on the cancellation.
