From wikipedia...

“The official explanation for the withdrawal is ‘technical difficulties encountered during post-production’, but critics suspect politically motivated censorship.”

I’ve been a huge fan of Zhang Yimou since I saw Hero which itself makes a subtle but defiant political statement about standing up for individuality vs the government. I was surprised that made it past the government censors, but I guess government censors aren’t artistically fluent enough to catch the secret message lol

Without knowing a thing about One Second but knowing about Zhang’s style, I’d guess that a similar political statement was made but this time it didn’t fly under the radar. The powers that be must’ve put the pressure on the film studio to bury it and cook up some lame arse excuse like “TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES” 🤨

China is changing. I suspect what might have passed censors 10 or 20 years ago simply won't fly in current times.

I don't think that's exactly the issue. This film went through several rounds of controversy with the national govt, which first selected then withdrew it from representing China in international film festivals. (Cannes, I believe). Zhang re-edited it and altered one or two things, and it was released to general audiences in China. So it's not prohibited in China. The issue is that no one is distributing it in the United States. The politics is the politics of finance capital refusing to publish/ release it here. Zhang Yimou's career is full of huge successes, big blockbusters with a lot of style on the one hand; and much more intimate, personal, consciously "artistic cinema" sorts of films. I love the second kind and I've seen them all... except this one. So what I'm really getting at is that it pisses me off that year after year, this movie has not seen daylight in the United States. It is slightly controversial in that it is a story about poverty and about the Cultural Revolution. But I suspect the main reason it is not being distributed here is because the financial class is afraid of offending China's wealthy elites by promoting a film that is critical of China's modern history.

Yes, but it went through several rounds of domestic censorship and controversy in 2019 and 2020. I imagine censorship will have got significantly tighter since then also as the government has got a lot sterner in 2021 onwards with a 'cultural crackdown'.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-culture-crackdown-sign-profound-political-change-commentary-2021-08-31/

So even what was acceptable in 2020 (like kids playing online games for more than 1hr per week) will now not be. Plus it may be bad for a censor's health to not err on the side of caution in the current climate of uncertainty of what is, and is not, permissible.

I imagine foreign outlets like Berlin etc don't want to show it for fear of offending China (damaging commercial interests) and potentially endangering Yimou. If he is in self preservation mode and not giving consent for it to be shown in the Chinese 2020 release form then foreign festivals can hardly override that.

Pure speculation on my part as I don't know if a film aired domestically in China in November 2020 would ordinarily be assured a US or European release within 18 months.

@Fergoose said:

I imagine foreign outlets like Berlin etc don't want to show it for fear of offending China (damaging commercial interests) and potentially endangering Yimou. If he is in self preservation mode and not giving consent for it to be shown in the Chinese 2020 release form then foreign festivals can hardly override that.

Right, I think we're looking at 3 levels of 'censorship' here. Foremost there's the official 'government censorship' which has the final say. Second, there's the creator's own 'artistic censorship' as he (Yimou) has to look out for his own reputational interests (and his own neck). And thirdly even after the film passes the first 2 levels, there's 'economic censorship' regarding what distributor is going to stick their $$$ out for a controversial piece.

In this case it looks like the film crashed on the 3rd level where, even though it 'officially' passed, nobody's willing to invest in distributing it. As I recall, even the international hit Hero had a lot of trouble getting off the ground until Tarantino got involved. If not for his influence, Hero could've met the same fate as this film: with a limited Chinese release before dying in obscurity.

I don't know if Tarantino is willing to stick his neck out again like he did in 2000. He's a much bigger name now, with international ties, so it may be a losing prospect for him to piss off the Chinese government so boldly. One way or another, this film probably won't get a US/EU release until some influential person steps in. Scorsese sometimes jumps in the ring to help foreign films get a mainstream release like he recently did with Gomorrah, but like Tarantino he probably has a lot to lose by pissing off the Chinese government in this dangerous political climate. Sometimes, just sometimes, Criterion will take a gamble by giving a financial flop a second life via home media, like they did with Murakami's Jellyfish Eyes, and Criterion has nothing to lose if they piss off the Chinese gov since their business is Region A (US) distribution only. So if we're lucky they're listening and we might get to see it on DVD eventually, but an official theatrical release probably isn't in the cards.