China censors Cloud Atlas

Chinese authorities have taken a goodly hack at the film "Cloud Atlas," shrinking it by 23 percent, according to the Hollywood Reporter, via Newser.

The film follows the relationship between a young composer, Robert Frobisher, and fellow Cambridge student Rufus Sixsmith.

Chinese authorities appear to have a problem with the progressive love story. They cut 40 minutes of the 169-minute-film's juicier moments, removing "passionate love scenes," Hollywood Reporter cited the Shanghai-based Dongfang Daily as saying. 

The Hollywood Reporter, making no secret of its feelings on the matter, went on to note that China cut the love "while gory sequences depicting a character being shot in the head or another having his throat slit remained." 

"Cloud Atlas" directors were not believed consulted on the film's China edit, announced a day after they tweaked the latest James Bond film "Skyfall," which premiered in China on Monday.

"Skyfall" — version Chinam — no longer shows a Chinese security guard being killed, and drops conversation alleging Chinese involvement in torture, the BBC reported.

The head of China's "Cloud Atlas" co-producing Dreams of the Dragon Pictures firm, Qiu Huashun, explained that “Chinese audiences might want to see more of a popcorn movie, and considerations for the Chinese market were made in the making of the Chinese version of the film,” Hollywood Reporter cited him as telling journalists in Beijing today.