Censor wields scissors -- two weeks after freedom pledge
Agence France Presse. March 24, 2000
TWO weeks after pledging greater artistic freedom, Singapore authorities have forced a critically-acclaimed Japanese film to be dropped from a local film festival.
In the Realm of the Senses (Ai No Corrida) had been due to be shown next month.
But festival director Philip Cheah told AFP that the cuts demanded by the censor were so significant it would be pointless screening Nagisa Oshima's 1976 erotic classic.
"We have decided the film will not be shown because of the censorship," he said.
He said the Films Appeal Committee here, which has the final word on movies viewed in Singapore, had asked that there be three cuts made to the movie before it could be screened.
"And one of cuts was in the final part. It is better not to be shown then," he said.
The decision comes two weeks after the Singapore government pledged to develop and cultivate the local arts scene, which has long been criticized as sterile and overly censored.
"It is very sad that even after 24 years, we still cannot see this Japanese classic in its entirety," Cheah said.
"If we are already teaching film in this country, it does not make sense that a classic - even if it is an erotic classic - cannot be seen at a film festival and reflected upon."
The movie, based on a true story set in pre-war Japan, is about an intense affair between a man and his servant.
A Korean movie entitled Lies will also not be shown here as it has been banned.
Censors here last year refused to allow Stanley Kubrick's last movie Eyes Wide Shut to be shown in its original version. After failing to get the censors to approve the original European version, film distributor Warner Borthers agreed to show the altered US version.