Asian Movie Pulse alerts me to Let the Bullets Fly, a Chinese-produced action-comedy released in China in 2010 which became the highest grossing Chinese release ever.
When you see the trailer and read the synopsis ('...notorious bandit chief Zhang descends upon a remote provincial town posing as its new mayor...hell-bent on making a fast buck...') it's awfully tempting to read the film as an allegory about modern Communist Party corruption in China's provinces. I'd love to hear from readers who have seen the film if this a legitimate interpretation. Did the film-makers outsmart China's censors?*
Let the Bullets Fly has had some festival screenings in Australia but it's not clear to me whether it will get wider release. It's due to open in the US in March.
* On reflection, this sounds a slightly naive question. China's censors are a little more subtle than those of, say, North Korea, who come down on any whiff of dissent. It may very well be that China's authorities look favourably on public messages that expose corruption in the provinces, since this is a widely acknowledged problem.
