Good work, itsmedave, Da Vinci Code approved

[rickfarang]

Censors reverse tack, Da Vinci Code approved

 

BANGKOK: -- The police censorship board has upheld the appeal of film distributors, and will allow The Da Vinci Code to be shown uncut and unchanged.

 

"The panel voted six to five to keep the movie as it is," said James Dhiraputra of Buena Vista International, the company which made the appeal.

 

Just one remnant remains of the censorship. Exhibitors must show a disclaimer at the start and end of the film stating that it is fiction. Christian groups have protested against its thesis that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had children.

 

The decision reverses a decision by the same board 24 hours previously, which ordered that the film's last 10 minutes be cut, and changes made to the subtitles and opening.

 

Protestant groups had urged that the film be banned or at least cut. The major Christian church in Thailand, the Catholics, have made no public comment on the controversial film.

 

According to Reuters, the evangelical Christian alliance which brought the censorship request accepted the final decison. "We respect the ruling," Thongchai Pradabchananurat, chairman of the Protestant Coordinating Committee told the news agency. "We have already expressed our feelings in this case and we will just have to forgive."

 

Foreign film critics, allowed to see the film for the first time today, just 24 hours before it opens in Thai theatres, roundly and apparently unanimously panned it.

 

Reuters reported that at a press screening late on Tuesday in Cannes, members of the audience laughed at the thriller's pivotal moment, and the end of the $125 million picture was greeted with stony silence.

 

"'Da Vinci' never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure," said Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter. Other critics agreed.

 

Lee Marshall of Screen International told the news agency: "I thought it was plodding and there was a complete lack of chemistry between Audrey Tautou and Tom Hanks."

 

For 24 hours, Thailand was the only country on Earth which agreed to censor the film. After the Tuesday decision by the film censorship board, the distributors appealed - and won.

 

Pol Maj Gen Somwong Lipiphun, who serves as chairman of the censorship committee, told reporters this evening that the film "can be screened without any cuts," a total reversal of Tuesday's censorship.

 

--Bangkokpost.com, Agencies 2006-05-17

[Flashermac]

Voted 6 to 5. Sounds like the kind of votes Thaksin always gets off with.

[Flashermac]

But in the Philippines ...

 

Manila bans showing of "The Da Vinci Code"

18 May 2006

AFP

 

 

Authorities in the Philippine capital Manila have banned all cinemas in the city from screening the controversial film "The Da Vinci Code."

 

A resolution was signed by a majority of the city councillors just hours after it premiered in Asia's bastion of Catholicism.

 

The resolution said the movie, which was based on US author Dan Brown's explosive novel, is "offensive to the established beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church."

 

It stressed that the country's Revised Penal Code states that "it is a crime to exhibit films which offend a religion."

 

City councillor Benjamin Asilo, who authored the resolution, said malls and cinema owners who defy the ban risked being fined, or their owners imprisoned.

 

Those caught selling pirated DVDs or VCDs of the movie could also be jailed for up to six months, Asilo warned.

 

The movie takes a leaf from Brown's book which put forward the theory that Jesus Christ was married to the biblical prostitute Mary Magdalene, had children and that the sacred blood line still exists today in secret.

 

The government's censor bureau earlier this week allowed the film to be shown but gave it an R-18 rating, meaning it is restricted to adults.

 

Members of the politically influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines have also branded the movie as blasphemous.

 

The Philippines is Asia's bastion of Catholicism, with over 80 percent of its 84 million population belonging to the religion.

[Flashermac]

And the reviews are coming in ...

 

The critics spout

[chuckwoww]

"You know a movie's a dud when even its self-flagellating albino killer monk isn't any fun. " John Beifuss.

 

That is funny.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"it is a crime to exhibit films which offend a religion."

 

How about offending atheist with religious crap? Is that a crime as well, or religious freedom?

 

Sanuk!

[whosyourdaddy]

well if you athiest get together, you might have as much power and money as organized religions.

[Flashermac]

Then they can build their own houses of un-worship, ordain their own non-clergy etc. Maybe get some more holidays for everybody so we can miss more work.

 

 

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

Isn't organized atheism an oxymoron?

 

Anyway, not surprised my comment caused a reply without a real answer from the religous amongst us. Double standards are pretty much what organized religion has always been about.

 

Serious question, why do you believe?

There is no evidence at all that suggests that there is a divine being * and all your beliefs are based on being told what to believe. So, why do you believe? Or is it just a case of hedging your bets just in case?

 

Sanuk!

 

* granted there is no evidence there isn't one either, but you cannot proof a negative so the burden of proof is on the believers.

[Flashermac]

The only rational position is agnosticism. Simply an "I don't know". But people by nature like to choose sides. Plus agnostics get sniped at by both believers and non-believers for not agreeing with them.