HONG KONG — The American film “Django Unchained” was abruptly pulled from theaters in China on Thursday, its opening day, a surprising move that came after some scenes were reported to have been edited to conform to the wishes of Chinese censors.

No reason was given for the decision to suspend the film’s opening. Workers at Beijing theaters said the film had been pulled because of unspecified technical problems with the movie.

The film was to have made its debut Thursday after weeks of heavy promotion in China. News reports have said that some of the film’s graphic violence was edited to make it acceptable to state censors, including altering the color of fake blood in violent scenes and limiting how far the blood splattered.

Such revisions are becoming increasingly common before American films are shown in China, with American filmmakers adhering to the demands of Chinese censors as they seek to tap into the country’s lucrative market of filmgoers. China is the second-largest movie market in the world, behind the United States.

“Django Unchained” won two Oscars in February, including one for best original screenplay, which went to the film’s director, Quentin Tarantino. The movie focuses on a slave named Django and a bounty hunter who pursue a particularly brutal slave owner.

Before the film’s planned opening, the Chinese media quoted a Sony Pictures official who described the changes made to appease censors and suggested that Mr. Tarantino had played a role in the changes.

“What we call bloodshed and violence is just a means of serving the purpose of the film, and these slight adjustments will not affect the basic quality of the film — such as tuning the blood to a darker color, or lowering the height of the splatter of blood,” Zhang Miao, director of Sony Pictures’ Chinese branch, told Southern Metropolis Daily. “Quentin knew how to adjust that, and it’s necessary that he is the one to do it. You can give him suggestions, but it must be him.”

Mr. Tarantino, whose films are known for their no-holds-barred depictions of gory violence, has not commented on reports that he toned the film down for Chinese censors.

Chinese media was rife with speculation by entertainment industry insiders that the movie was pulled because state censors had somehow missed a brief scene with nudity. That explanation seemed unlikely, however, given the careful vetting the film is said to have undergone before it was approved for release.

“This film, like all Chinese films, has gone through a censorship process and has been edited for a Chinese audience,” said Wei Xidi, a prominent film critic. “Because it has gone through this process, it doesn’t make sense that it would be halted all of a sudden on the night of its premiere.”

“Django Unchained” is the first of Mr. Tarantino’s famously violent movies to be cleared for distribution in Chinese theaters, though parts of his “Kill Bill” movies were filmed in Beijing. Its sudden disappearance from theaters across the country prompted consternation even among some of the Chinese government’s staunchest defenders.

Hu Xijin, editor in chief of Global Times, a state-run newspaper known for its nationalistic posture, cast the abrupt suspension of the film as a “strange decision” made by government agencies full of nervous bureaucrats. “The harm that this action itself brings to politics far exceeds the harm that would have been caused by not censoring the ‘offensive scene,’” he wrote on his microblog.

At one Beijing movie theater, an employee said “Django Unchained” was shown after midnight Thursday to about 32 people. Another worker said that the movie was ordered taken down later for technical reasons, adding, “There’s probably something in the film that’s not up to standard.”

Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong. Amy Qin and Sue-Lin Wong contributed research from Beijing.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 11, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of moviegoers who saw a screening of “Django Unchained” at a Beijing movie theater, and misspelled the surname of a contributor. The movie was shown to about 32 people, not 150, and Amy Qin — not Quin — contributed research from Beijing. 

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/business/media/django-unchained-pulled-from-chinas-theaters.html?partner=rss&emc=rss