Chinese Censors Slash Chow Yun-Fat’s POTC Role

As if Chow Yun-Fat wasn’t already suffering from a lack of sufficient screen time in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End . . . Chinese censors have cut him back even further:

Chinese movie star Chow Yun-Fat’s role in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” has been slashed in half by censors in China for vilifying and defacing the Chinese and insulting Singapore.

The film, which was released on the mainland early this week, shows only about 10 minutes of Chow’s scenes while in the Hollywood version his scenes take up about 20 minutes of the film.

Smoother Lunar New Year at HK Disneyland

Mr Broke Hoedown (aka Collateral Damage) asks in his blog today how things went this year for Lunar New Year at Hong Kong Disneyland. I’m reasonably sure his blog today is the first time anyone has written a sentence beginning “I sure wish I was married to an obsessive Disney fan,” and it also did contain this excellent tidbit about the year of the Pig:

Disney hopes the great swine can come to its aid. Its Three Little Pigs characters were featured prominently in New Year’s celebrations at Hong Kong Disney. Also Mickey, Goofy, Donald et al. wore traditional Chinese clothing during the festivities wrapped up last week. “The pigs are part of a marketing campaign aimed at shoring up the park’s reputation which was tarnished last Chinese New Year when overcrowding made officials lock the doors, barring scores of mainland tourists with valid tickets from entering.”

And I must say, it does sound like things went better than last time around for Lunar New Year at the park. I couldn’t find a single report of children being thrown over fences. What I did find was these news stories:

• Taipei Times: Disneyland in Hong Kong says growth steady over holiday
• Washington Post: Asians Greet New Year With Food, Prayer
• People’s Daily Online: Lunar new year, a golden chance for Mickey to win hearts of Chinese