China's censors are now satisfied with the re-edited version of Tom Cruise's new action movie Mission: Impossible III (M:I3) which is due to be released on the Chinese mainland on July 20.

 

"The producer has cut the parts which are unsuitable for the Chinese audience," Weng Li, deputy manager of distribution under The China Film Group Corporation, told Xinhua News Agency. "There are not many cuts so those who haven't seen the original version will not be aware of the changes," said Li who refused to say which scenes, their duration and how many cuts have been made.

 

Earlier reports said the scenes needing amendment included "a car chase and shootings on the streets of Shanghai" and "laundry hanging from balconies," which were said to compromise the image of Shanghai.

 

The changes were made based on recommendations put forward by censors of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), which had been reported to be prepared to ban the movie.

 

Speculators also suggested the movie offended China's censors because of a portrayal of Shanghai that includes tattered clothes being hung on bamboo rods and a slow police response to a trespassing attempt by Cruise's character, secret agent Ethan Hunt.

 

Cruise's performance in Shanghai and the small town of Xitang are expected to draw a big Chinese audience with predicted revenues of 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million).

 

The only other foreign films to bring in that much money are King Kong and The Da Vinci Code, Weng said. The Chinese film The Promise has made almost twice that amount.

 

The first two installments of Mission Impossible, raked in a Chinese box office valued at 40 million yuan (US$5 million) each.

 

Bootleg DVD copies of M:I3, however, have been available in Beijing for approximately two months.

 

In a store under the Beijing Modern & Classic Culture Co., Ltd near the China Art Gallery, a salesgirl said their M:I3 copies are inferior fakes, which were shot in a cinema with a hand-held camera.

 

Yet their price - 8 yuan (US$1) each - is the same as those of a good-quality movie DVD. "It's a new movie so people are buying it anyway."

 

A hawker on Xuanwumenwai Street, in the west of the capital, said he purchased the fake DVDs from south China's Guangdong Province, and charged 5 yuan (about US$0.60) each.

 

"Based on my experience, the pirated DVDs won't have much influence on the movie's box office in China due to their inferior quality," Weng told Xinhua. "In fact, the pirated ones have been advertising the movie for two months," he added.

 

M:I3 has grossed over US$130 million in North America during the ten weeks since its release, the Associated Press has reported.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2006)