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The selection of the romantic comedy Crossing Hennessy, which starred actor-singer Jackie Cheung, as the opening film of the 34^th Hong Kong International Film Festival marked a return from the wilderness for Cheung’s young co-star Tang Wei.   The gifted young actress found herself blacklisted by Chinese officials after appearing in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution as a young student who takes part in an assassination plot against a Chinese official (Tony Leung) during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai.

The film featured a number of graphic sex scenes between Tang and Leung, but the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) banned the film for being a ‘glorification of traitors and insulting to patriots.’   Chinese authorities censured SARFT for allowing the film to be screened and a number of SARFT officials were fired or punished.   TV stations in Beijing and Shanghai were ordered to stop reporting on the actress and to pull advertisements she was appearing in.  Awards shows in China were instructed to exclude Tang and the film’s producers from their guest lists, discussions on online forums were deleted, and Tang’s name no longer appeared in a Google search in China.

The announcement regarding Crossing Hennessy’s screening at the festival seemed to indicate that the official view regarding Tang was finally beginning to soften, and an official of Irresistible Films, the movie’s producers, confirmed that the film would be released in mainland China, although they did not yet have a date for release.

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