District 9 in China

I've just watched Neill Blomkamp's "Alive in Joburg" just as a masochist effort to fire up my growing need to see District 9.

"Why masochist?" you may ask. And I answer very bluntly: because its coming to the big screens in China is not confirmed yet. It may take months or simply not come at all. The department in China's government that approves international movies is not very open to many western titles and tries to keep the number of imported movies down. The historic average is 20 titles per year. A very meager figure compared to hundreds of movies released by Hollywood alone (and it's good to remember that Bollywood easily tops Hollywood in this front).

I still hope to see District 9 approaching these eastern shores some time soon. Until that day, I'll have to stick to the reviews. One of my preferred ones states:

"Neill Blomkamp brings to screens a fantastic, gritty, realistic piece of science fiction with District 9. Not since Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner", John Carpenter's "The Thing", or James Cameron's "Aliens" have we seen a science fiction film with a vision of this caliber. After viewing District 9, it will be clear to one and all why Peter Jackson put so much faith in Blomkamp and took him under his wing as protégé."