In 2018, when a famous Chinese director was preparing to shoot a movie, his team sent a 33-page script to the novelist Geling Yan. Her name is printed on each page. She said it made sense to her because she wrote a Chinese novel that influenced the film.
But when the movie “One Second” was released two years later in China and elsewhere, her name didn’t show up in the credits. The director is Yi-Mou Zhang, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, whose works include “Raise the Red Lantern” and “Flying Dagger House”.
Yang, who publicly criticized the Chinese government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, said he was not surprised to see his name removed from a movie produced in the country. Still, she said she thought that companies distributing and promoting it outside of China could probably agree to acknowledge her achievements in some way.
Since then, Yang and her husband and manager, Lawrence Walker, have asked companies in Asia, Europe and North America to do it either in the film itself or in promotional materials.
“I don’t think they should agree to this kind of infringement,” said Yan’An, a Chinese-American novelist living in Berlin.
But they are almost silent. Yang’s campaign and understated reaction emphasize how a clear censorship decision in China quietly spills over into the art house film world.
“It’s not the first time we’ve tackled such a problem in Chinese cinema,” Jose Luis Lebordinos, director of the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, told Walker last year in an email. Despite his best efforts, Lebordinos added, “Sometimes I can’t do anything.”
Disappearing credit
Released in 2020, “One Second” is set during the Cultural Revolution in China. It follows a prisoner who escaped from a labor camp to watch a newsreel, hoping to get a glimpse of his daughter.
Mr. Yang (63 years old) said that the storyline of the movie is “Detective LuyanshiHer 2011 novel about Chinese intellectuals sent to labor camps in the 1950s.
Huang Yi, a professor of literature at National Changhua University of Education in Taiwan, said the film was “certainly influenced” by the book, although it diverged in other ways. “I think it should at least mention that the inspiration for this film was taken from Geling Yan’s novel,” she said.
According to a contract reviewed by the New York Times, Yang sold the rights to the novel into a movie to Chan in 2011. Three years later, he released the movie Coming Home, based on “Detective Le Yangsi” about political prisoners during the Cultural Revolution. The contract did not explicitly prohibit Mr. Zhang from making another movie based on the same book.
In the fall of 2018, Zhang’s literary adviser told Yan via China’s messaging platform WeChat that “One Second” couldn’t trust “The Criminal Lu Yanshi,” according to a screenshot of Yan’s communications. Her husband offered to the Times. The adviser said she had a copyright dispute unrelated to a Chinese production company, which could pose legal issues to the director.
As a compromise, the advisor suggested adding a line at the end of the film to thank Mr. Yang for her contributions without mentioning her novel, the correspondence shows. She said she trusted Zhang and agreed with her in a recent interview.
“We have been working together for years,” said Yang. In addition to “Detective Le Yanshi,” one of her other novels was released in 2011 and was the basis for Zhang’s movie “The Flowers of War,” starring Christian Bale.
But just before the release of “One Second,” she said, a literary adviser said the Chinese government had ordered her name removed from credit.
Mute response
Neither Mr. Zhang nor the literary adviser who spoke with Mr. Yang responded to the interview request. So was the Chinese Films Division, the state agency that oversees the country’s film industry.
Huanxi Media, one of the “One Second” production companies, said in an email that the film “has nothing to do with” Yang’s novel. The company added that movies in mainland China cannot be changed after they have been approved for release.
In 2019, “One Second” was unexpectedly withdrawn from the Berlin International Film Festival. This is due to the “technical reason” that the official account of the movie about China’s social media platform Weibo is a Chinese euphemism for government censorship.
Walker said he and his wife understand the reality of the Chinese market. What they don’t accept is that most companies and film festivals that distribute or promote films abroad aren’t willing to acknowledge her achievements.
“This is not what is happening to the poor in remote parts of China,” Walker said. “This is happening to professional screenwriters and US citizens as a result of Chinese censorship. Currently in the US and other countries.”
There are two notable exceptions.
One of Walker’s letters, Mubi, is a London-based streaming service that currently supports the art house Cinephilia. List Yang on that website page It promotes “one second”.
And this month yokeThe Berlin film group began showing so-called “introduction notes” before the screening of “One Second,” which recognizes Yang’s novel as a film inspiration. Yorck spokesman Marvin Wiechert said in an email that he learned of her allegations of lack of credibility from her lawyer and those who attended a recent preview of the film in Berlin.
“As an exhibitor at an art house with a deep interest in artistic expression and ownership, I felt it would be an appropriate response,” he said of the decision to add a note.
But Walker said he hadn’t been contacted by Mubi, York, or any other company involved in the international distribution of the film. The list includes film festivals in two cities, Boston and Canada, as well as companies in Hong Kong and the United States. No one answered any inquiries from the Times, except for a spokeswoman for the Toronto International Film Festival, who said the director of the Toronto International Film Festival was too busy for the interview.
Mr. Yang has not filed a proceeding over her allegations. For now, Walker said her legal team is seeking reconciliation in France or the United States.
Isabel Dennis, Head of Legal and Business at Wild Bunch International, an international distributor of Parisian films, emails the Times to judge Mr. Jan’s claim because the company did not produce “One Second.” He said he was not authorized. She acts on the missing screen credits or as an intermediary between her and the filmmaker.
Big picture
Mr. Yang’s case reflects a previous case of film censorship in China, which is a huge source of income for Hollywood. For example, this year the ending of the 1999 cult film “Fight Club” starring Brad Pitt has been removed from the Chinese version. The changes were restored only after they received international attention.
In the case of Mr. Yang, her lawyer would probably not be able to file a strong proceeding to give her credit in “one second” because Mr. Zhang did not agree to do so in writing, law professor Victoria L. Schwartz said. At Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
But legal exposure is not the same risk of reputation, said Professor Schwartz, who specializes in entertainment law and intellectual property disputes. She said Yang’s campaign raises the question of whether the US film industry, including trade unions representing writers, should develop better criteria for evaluating international films from the “censored market.” Stated.
“Should there be a norm?” Said Professor Schwartz. “Should these companies do better, not because they are legally required, but because that’s the right thing to do?”
Liu Yi Contributed to the research.
