Wo Jiao Bond, Wo Jiao James Bond
Monday, James Bond made his official debut in mainland China as “Casino Royale” premiered in Beijing. Remarkably, the newest installment of 007, or as the Chinese call it, “ling ling qi,” is the first of the 21 Bond films to get a license to premiere in China. And when I say premiere, I mean legally and in an actual theater. The bootleg DVD version of the film premiered in wooden boxes on the street over two months ago. Daniel Craig, the latest actor to play James Bond and his “Casino Royale” Bond girl Eva Green made the trip to Beijing for the debut and will appear at Tuesday night’s Shanghai premiere. Craig told reporters at his Beijing hotel, “It’s been an ambition of mine to get here, and I wish I had more time.” You wish you had more time? Come on Bond, what happened to “tomorrow never dies?” While some violence was edited out of the film in the U.S. and in England, oddly China’s State Administration of Radio Film and Television, notorious for censoring foreign films, authorized the film to be shown without any cuts. Craig told the media that a Chinese street DVD vendor tried to sell him a pirated copy for under a dollar. Craig said over the weekend, “It hasn’t premiered here yet, but I think it’s been seen here.” Very perceptive, Mr. Bond. Executives predict that “Casino Royale” will be the highest grossing foreign film in the history of Chinese cinema.
•Reuters: Not Shaken, Not Stirred…and in China for the First Time