Jaycee Chan, the son of Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan who was jailed last year after a drugs bust, is off the Chinese government’s blacklist ahead of the launch of his next project, Chen Kaige‘s A Monk Comes Down The Mountain.
Industry sources confirmed media reports that the martial arts movie will screen on Jul. 3 as planned and that the younger Chan‘s scenes will not be cut.
While the Chinese government is currently waging a moral crusade that has seen high-profile arrests in the entertainment industry, there have been reports the campaign may be starting to ease.
Also, the need to keep domestic movies hitting the theaters amid an unprecedented onslaught from Hollywood appears to have led authorities to allow films already finished, even if they contain scenes featuring stars with damaged reputations.
“The director (Chen) has been negotiating with the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) saying that Jaycee Chan has a lot of scenes in the movie. It will be very difficult to cut it, let alone re-shooting it,” insiders said, quoted in Taiwanese media.
“Moreover, there are a lot of Hollywood blockbusters being released here and everybody should do something for Chinese films. In the end, SAPPRFT agreed to unblock the restriction.”
There was speculation that Taiwanese movie star Ko Kai, who was arrested smoking marijuana with Chan in a massage parlor in Beijing, will be allowed to appear in the latest, fourth installment of the Tiny Times franchise, which is due to open on Jul. 9.
Tiny Times director Guo Jingming has repeatedly declined to comment.
Ko, whose real name is Ko Chen-tung, said he had not been invited to take part in promotional work and the poster for Tiny Times 4 does not feature the Taiwanese heartthrob.
There have been reports that Tiny Times 4 has been re-shot not to include him, along with another movie, Monster Hunt, which is due to be released on Jul. 16. However, insiders say that difficulties reshooting the Tiny Times movie meant that he would take part.
Through his agent, Ko said only that he hadn’t “received any official news about this and didn’t receive the invitation for the promotion of Tiny Times 4.”
China’s media watchdog last year ordered TV networks to ban “tainted” stars who have used drugs or visited prostitutes from TV and other media outlets. The last 18 months have seen a flurry of big names in the entertainment industry nabbed in drug and vice busts, including Chan, and the Golden Bear-winning director Wang Quan’an, who was arrested last September for “paying for sex.” Wang was released from prison this week.
Some stars remain firmly blacklisted, including Hong Kong’s Edison Chen, whose sex videos with many Hong Kong stars were leaked online in 2008.
Other big figures to fall foul of the campaign are actor Wang Xuebing, TV actor Zhang Bo on suspected methamphetamine offenses, screenwriter Chen Wanning, who was known by his pen name, Ning Caishen, and who tested positive for methamphetamine, police said.
Also caught up were Hong Kong actor Roy Cheung and mainland actor Gao Hu, while director Zhang Yuan was held for drug offenses at a Beijing railway station.
In a separate incident, a CCTV TV journalist, Bian Ce, reportedly died after he fell from a building in Beijing’s Chaoyang district while under the influence of drugs. Police said they found two packets of crystal meth near the body.
