China unchains Django for audiences

Chinese theatres on Sunday resumed showing Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, a month after mysteriously yanking the film amid speculation state censors wanted further cuts over content. China strictly censors films and other media for sexual and political sensitivities while also limiting the distribution of foreign films to protect the domestic industry. “Django Unchained shows today, can everyone go see it?" said a posting on the official Chinese microblog for the film. Movie theatres in the commercial hub Shanghai and the capital Beijing confirmed the return of the film, the story of a freed American slave who, supported by a bounty hunter, seeks to rescue his wife from a plantation owner. It stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio. "It's on and there are five screenings today," an employee of Beijing's UME cinema chain said, but declined to say what changes might have been made to the film. The official Xinhua news agency said the film was previously suspended for "technical reasons", according to a report on Sunday. A worker at the Yonghua Cinema City in a Shanghai shopping mall also confirmed the first day of screenings on Sunday, but said it would only show in the evening, AFP reports. Chinese cinema fans, posting on the Internet, had speculated that nude scenes forced the initial suspension, while others cited the politically dangerous theme of underdogs rising up. Foxx, who plays the freed slave, appears naked and hanging upside down in one scene. Tarantino's trademark use of graphic, but highly-stylised, violence is also evident in the film. Many Chinese film buffs have already seen Django Unchained because pirated DVDs and downloads of the movie have been available in China for months. The US release for the film was late last year.