Tuesday, August 28, 2012

WORLD NEWS: Japan-China friendship film postponed amid row


The screening of a film to mark friendly relations between Japan and China has been put on ice because the nations are embroiled in a simmering territorial row, the production company said Monday.

"The Love Leading to Tomorrow" was to be screened in China starting on September 7, but will now be delayed until later in the month or October, said Tokyo-based film company Under Z Group Co.

The decision with the Chinese distributor to postpone the film's screening was made "considering various factors including the current relations between the two countries", it added.

The movie, which premiered in Japan in March, was made to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Japan's normalization of diplomatic ties with China.

It features a story about love and friendship between a Chinese man and a Japanese female fashion designer whose grandmother was an orphan left behind in China at the end of World War II.

Sizable demonstrations have been staged in China against Japan's claims to a disputed East China Sea island chain known in China as Diaoyu and in Japan as Senkaku. The chain is also claimed by Taiwan.

The decades-long dispute flares up periodically. Earlier this month, passions rose when pro-China activists from Hong Kong sailed to the islands. Japan, which controls the chain, took 14 people into custody and expelled them.

Shortly after, a group of Japanese activists sailed to the islands and also landed, sparking diplomatic protests by the Chinese and Taiwan governments and angry street demonstrations in Chinese cities.-Interaksyon (August 27, 2012 7:39PM)

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