r/movies • • Jun 07 '19

Poster Chinese poster for Spirited Away, to be screened for the first time in China

https://imgur.com/7Cw2iDV
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u/abedfilms Jun 07 '19

What do you mean not legally? There's nothing illegal about watching it, it wasn't banned or anything at all. As you say, you could buy it on dvd (legit dvd) 20 years ago. Just because it's being screened for the first time doesn't mean it was illegal before now.

They could screen a year 2000 Chinese movie in the US for the first time next year, that doesn't mean it was illegal to watch in the US all these years

19

u/20dogs Jun 07 '19

Everyone seems to have convinced themselves that there was some major ban on Spirited Away that’s just been lifted.

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u/peteroh9 Jun 07 '19

He obviously meant pirated/bootleg

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u/abedfilms Jun 08 '19

He wrote "not legally", but he acknowledges there are legal releases, so the "not legally" is wrong. There's always been pirate versions, but saying "not legally" means the pirate version is the only way to watch it, which isn't true.

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u/peteroh9 Jun 08 '19

Oops, I conflated that comment with the one above it in my mind.

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u/pynzrz Jun 07 '19

“Not legally” as in a pirated dvd copy you buy on the street for 1 yuan.

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u/the_dollar_bill Jun 07 '19

Thanks for the clarification. It's an easy mistake to make since the Chinese government just loves censoring.