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China Bans Time Travel Movies

Old 04-13-11, 02:57 PM
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China Bans Time Travel Movies

The Chinese government has banned time travel in movies and other entertainment today, claiming that they "casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation."

I think this has potential to be the most entertaining thread we've had in a while.
Old 04-13-11, 03:00 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Some bloggers, however, claim that the new guidelines have been lost in translation. According to one Gamma Squad writer, "The true purpose of the ruling seems to be to discourage the misrepresentation of historical figures in films and TV shows, including in time travel movies."
Old 04-13-11, 03:06 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Yeah, I saw that. I just wonder how it makes any more sense. I mean, did anyone watch Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and think they were really seeing a true-to-life depiction of Socrates?
Old 04-13-11, 03:07 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Originally Posted by MinLShaw
Yeah, I saw that. I just wonder how it makes any more sense. I mean, did anyone watch Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and think they were really seeing a true-to-life depiction of Socrates?
I once read an article or saw an interview with a physicist who believed it was the most accurate representation of time travel in fiction.

I don't have my finger to the pulse of the Time Travel Expert Physicist Pundit community so I can't even come close to remembering his name but I remember finding it surprising considering how uninventive the rules and ramifications of itme travel were in those movies. Maybe the uninventive nature of it is what made it somewhat plausible.
Old 04-13-11, 03:07 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

In Communist China, time go back in you
Old 04-13-11, 03:13 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

You know, the ban would apply to Back to the Future, Part III, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III and (depending how the rule is interpreted), Star Trek Generations. Maybe this ain't all bad!
Old 04-13-11, 03:21 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

My tuna club futures have skyrocketed.
Old 04-13-11, 03:27 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Good law. I'm for anything that stops the promotion of feudalism.
Old 04-13-11, 03:38 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies



Suck it China!
Old 04-13-11, 03:58 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

I couldn't follow "Primer" either, but I didn't call for a ban on the whole genre.
Old 04-13-11, 04:26 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Originally Posted by TallGuyMe


Suck it China!
Who is that on Keanu's shirt?

I love this part:
have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation
I've never seen any chinese time travel movies, but I've seen plenty of chinese martial arts movies and they all contained monstrous and weird plots, used absurd tactics, and promoted feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation. All without the aid of time travel. Hero anyone?
Old 04-13-11, 05:13 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Originally Posted by Mabuse
Who is that on Keanu's shirt?
Old 04-13-11, 05:16 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

So does this mean our Chinese DVDtalkers wont be able to enjoy the new season of Doctor Who?
Old 04-13-11, 05:53 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Originally Posted by MinLShaw
I mean, did anyone watch Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and think they were really seeing a true-to-life depiction of Socrates?
Well, a lot of people refer to him as "So-Craits" now.
Old 04-13-11, 09:04 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

To be fair, we (the smartasses of earlier generations) pronounced it that way before Bill & Ted.
Old 04-13-11, 09:21 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Great, now the Chinese will have to make do with bootleg time travel. This is going to have serious consequences for the time vortex.
Old 04-13-11, 09:23 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

i think time travel must have been invented, if the governments saying it is off topic, that was my first thought
Old 04-13-11, 09:24 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Great Scott Marty!
Old 04-13-11, 09:25 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

If the Chinese had invented time travel, we'd all be Chinese right now.
Old 04-13-11, 09:30 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Originally Posted by Suprmallet
If the Chinese had invented time travel, we'd all be Chinese right now.
Funny; I could have sworn my wife spoke Mandarin for a few minutes earlier today. And I did have one of our cats in my lap when I got hungry for dinner...
Old 04-14-11, 12:33 AM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Originally Posted by Guru Askew
I once read an article or saw an interview with a physicist who believed [Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure] was the most accurate representation of time travel in fiction.
I use the films Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Back to the Future to explain two different theories of time travel timelines: An immutable timeline vs. a mutable one.

Bill & Ted features an immutable timeline: both past and future are unchangeable, and the time travel Bill and Ted undergo just enacts events that already happened and/or were going to happen. This results in seeming paradoxes, like Ted deciding to go back in time at a future date to get his dad's keys from the past, and leave them in the present, and then present Ted discovers the keys his future self will leave behind. To our linear way of thinking, this appears paradoxical, but it's actually consistent within an immutable timeline.

With Back to the Future, a mutable timeline is used, where travel to the past can actually change the past. This type of timeline introduces all sorts of paradoxes, like the classic grandfather paradox. BTTF actually has a variation of the grandfather paradox where he inadvertently stops his parents from hooking up the way they originally did. The movie plays this paradox as a ticking clock (Marty and his sibling's are being gradually "erased from existence" over the course of a week), but doesn't explain how, if Marty is erased from existence, he would've caused the original break in the timeline.

Physicists tend to like the idea of an immutable timeline, as it removes the possibility of paradoxes. However, films tend to like mutable timelines, as there's more room for drama as well as playing on the wish fulfillment of the audience (everyone wishes at some point or another that they could go back in time and change some aspect of the past).

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_tr...of_time_travel

Note that the Wikipedia article mentions a 3rd type of timeline, that of parallel universes with alternate histories. BTTF2 actually touches on this, when Doc Brown is describing how they entered into an alternate timeline.

Also, some TV shows and movies don't follow one model consistently, and may mix and match. For example, Terminator uses the Bill and Ted model, while Terminator 2 uses BTTF, while Terminator 3 splits the difference (changes to specific smaller events are possible, but not to larger events).
Old 04-14-11, 01:57 AM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Damn! I was really looking forward to Chang & Li's Excellent Adventure.
Old 04-14-11, 09:36 AM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Originally Posted by The Cow
Well, a lot of people refer to him as "So-Craits" now.
The movie does contain the only accurate pronunciation of "Socrates" name in any American film -- when Bill and Ted first go up to him, he introduces himself as So-CRA-tees instead of the English mangling, SOC-ra-teeeeeez.
Old 04-14-11, 11:15 AM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Originally Posted by Numanoid
Good law. I'm for anything that stops the promotion of feudalism.


I know someone who's not getting a kiss...
Old 04-14-11, 12:28 PM
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies

Originally Posted by MinLShaw
The Chinese government has banned time travel in movies and other entertainment today, claiming that they "casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation."

I think this has potential to be the most entertaining thread we've had in a while.
Going by their logic, does this mean that they're shutting down the Hong Kong film industry?

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