Hong Kong: 'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey' horror film release cancelled
A participant in the Lunar New Year parade dressed as Winnie the Pooh, in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York City, February 12, 2023 (illustration image). REUTERS - BING GUAN
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The horror film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey will not be released in Hong Kong and Macau, the distributor announced Tuesday, March 21, a few days before the scheduled release.
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With our correspondent in Hong Kong, Florence de Changy
The movie Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is a low-budget gore film in which a sadistic killer loves not only honey like Winnie the Pooh, whose mask he wears, but also the blood and especially that of young girls who spend a weekend in an isolated house in the middle of the forest. So far, nothing politically sensitive. The Hong Kong censorship board had approved the release of the film in 32 theaters from Thursday for "over 18s".
Winnie the Pooh personanon grata in Hong Kong too
But the previews were suddenly canceled and the theaters that were supposed to show the film suddenly changed their programming. Winnie the Pooh is a classic of English children's literature, but since a photo of Xi Jinping and Barack Obama walking side by side in California in 2013 was paired with a vignette of the bear Winnie walking with her friend the tiger, Tigrou, Winnie has become the sarcastic effigy of the Chinese president. Any reference to the character of Winnie the Pooh has therefore been censored in China for a long time.
But this episode seems to indicate that Winnie the Pooh is now persona non grata in Hong Kong too.
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