Breaking News: CHO LON Officially Banned Worldwide
For the past several months, the world of martial arts cinema fandom has been waiting for Charlie Nguyen’s latest film, Cho Lon, to see the light of day. Well, four months since then, the film hit a brick wall with Vietnamese censors blocking the film’s initial release scheduled for April, due to the violent nature of the film.
Today, courtesy of Twitchfilm, we now have the full update confirming just how strong that wall is:
Cho Lon violated the Law of Cinema when showing scenes of gangsters blatantly set in battle, chaotic fighting with knives, swords, machetes, with blood spilling everywhere … without the interference of government, polices, people or any other social forces.
Recently the producers sent the edited version of Cho Lon, which cut some violent scenes and inserted some appropriate scenes. But it’s still not repaired overall, so the Central Board of Film Evaluation of the Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism shall not issue licenses for Cho Lon.
It’s unfortunate that we will not get to see this film. We all love Johnny Tri Nguyen and Charlie Nguyen’s work. And in the age of Kill Bill, The Raid, Saw and Hostel, you would least expect a headline like this for a film that has spent a lot of time and money being filmed, re-filmed and promoted.
This is devastating news, and as it stands, this is news we are going to have to live with.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
June 7, 2013 @ 4:49 pm
Let's contact the makers and distribute it ourselves..
June 7, 2013 @ 7:01 pm
Unfortunately that's not possible. I've been told by someone close to the industry that if they do this, there is a chance that the filmmakers for Cho Lon could either end up blacklisted or much worse. The vietnamese authorities have the last word. Sucks big time, to be honest.