China shocked after ‘v for vendetta’ aired on national tv

Saturday night could have come as a shock to the millions of viewers of national broadcaster China Central Television’s (CCTV) movie channel. Sutirtho Patranobis reports.

Saturday night could have come as a shock to the millions of viewers of national broadcaster China Central Television’s (CCTV) movie channel. The ruling Communist Party of China’s (CPC) mouthpiece aired the movie ‘V for Vendetta’, revolving around the plot of a masked man’s violent crusade against state tyranny and oppression, themes that the totalitarian party is certainly not keen on.

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The movie, starring Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving, had been banned in China since its release in 2005 though pirated copies of the movie are available in China. It expectedly triggered a buzz among Chinese microbloggers on its Twitter-like versions of “Weibo.”

CCTV 6, the broadcaster’s primary movie channel and one of its most popular channels, announced the movie’s telecast on its official Weibo account.

The channel’s announcement reposted over 400 times though comments, according to Weibo waters, were blocked. One user posted: “Yesterday evening CCTV unexpectedly broadcast ‘V for Vendetta’. The most important lines from the film are ‘people shouldn’t fear the government, the government should fear the people.”