VN music, film fans take on censors

However, a version was briefly leaked onto the Internet on Friday and, despite being promptly removed, was soon widely available on illegal download sites.

With the advent of modern technology, Vietnamese fans have begun to ignore the country’s strict censorship controls.

“Bui Doi Cho Lon”, or “Chinatown”, was made by one of Vietnam’s most famous action film directors, Charlie Nguyen, and stars his brother Johnny Nguyen. It tells the story of rival gangsters who confront each other in a market in Ho Chi Minh City.

It was banned by the National Cinema Department for violent content and “wrongly” reflecting the security situation in the city, newspaper Tuoi Tre reported.

Fans disagreed.

“It’s so good! Why did they stop it from being shown in the cinema?” one commentator called Peter Thinh wrote below a trailer of the film posted on YouTube.

Modern technology is making the country’s once-insurmountable censorship machine less relevant, said a researcher on Vietnamese youth culture who requested that her name be withheld.

“With so many people using the internet now, the rules are so easy to break, no one cares about them,” she said.

Any domestically produced film must be vetted by the Culture Ministry’s Cinematography Agency before public screening. Permission is withheld for excessive violence or sex, or anything deemed to undermine the government or Communist Party.

Music is subject to similar screening by the Ministry’s Department of Performing Arts, but fans and artists have been working around the official restrictions.

Songwriter Ngoc Dai has had run-ins with the censors over his sexually explicit lyrics for more than 10 years. In April, he released an album without even applying for permission.

The album “Thang Mo 1 Cai nuong 8x”, which translates roughly to “Village Herald 1, Vagina 8x”, contains such lyrics as “go on, have sex, compatriots / throw a sperm bullet / scout for the Fatherland”. The combination of explicit language, criticism of Vietnam’s conservative, patriarchal society and accusations of government “thought control” led local media to brand his self-release as “obscene” and “slanderous”. “This is absolutely unacceptable and outrageous especially for songs about the homeland and parents,” Tran Quoc Chiem, head of the Department of Performing Arts, was quoted as saying by local media.

Dai said the negative press coverage has driven up sales, but acknowledges that the ease of working around censorship is new.

“Five to 10 years ago it was impossible to do this,” he said of his album’s unsanctioned, private publication.

He said he was prepared for any consequence, even going to jail.

By law, he could face a penalty of US$2,000 (Bt62,000) and lose his licence to perform in public. But so far, the performing arts department has not done anything beyond inviting him to their office to discuss the album, and advising the public not to listen to it.

The authorities say they are aware of their limitations in cyberspace.

“The Internet is making it more difficult for us to stop censored material from reaching the public,” Deputy Minister of Culture VuongDuy Bien said.

Finding the person responsible for leaking the film Bui Doi Cho Lon would be difficult, he said.

Some news reports have speculated that the culprit could be charged with “disseminating debauched cultural products”, which carries a sentence of up to three years in jail.

Bien declined to confirm details of any possible charges, but in they would not likely be brought against the director, who also objected to the unofficial release.

“This is a rough draft in which story, sound, light, colour and special effects are not fully edited,” Charlie Nguyen said.

“It’s a version that I never want anyone to see,” he said of the rough cut, prepared only for the censors to check the film’s content in its failed bid for approval.

“I am absolutely shocked and sad as if someone was killing my child.”