You may be right but the focus seemed to be on self survival of a killer.

Rian Johnson has recorded a commentary for folks who want to see the movie again in theaters. Says it will be different from one he will do for the DVD/Blu.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...ng-headphones/

When a looper's time is up, their future self is sent back in time for their past selves to kill them. Because they don't want "loose ends". So they let these loose ends live out the rest of their lives (30 years) in peace before kidnapping them and sending them back to be killed? This is not an effective policy.


He explained this in a Q&A - he didn't want people from present time killing another looper knowing that they would eventually murder them later.

Decided to boycott this film because it's following a REALLY disturbing trend of movie studios selling out to Chinese censors. I could elaborate but a quick google search will go into more detail, but suffice to say I don't support propaganda from repressive regimes. I found out about this listening to KCRW's The Business where a producer of Looper glibly explained rewriting the whole script to depict And also to listen to these spineless producers talk about how Chinese censorship is just a "business issue" to be managed and how the future of American filmmaking is partnering with the Chinese government to determine what can and can't be in the movies to ensure a good opening in China. Fucking sick.

I wouldn't have a problem with this if China were a friendly country that was geniunely reforming and liberating its people, but that they're on a mad tear to explain to the world that oppression is lucrative and the "Way of the future" and that American business and film people are being herded like sheep by them makes my head spin. What happened to our rebellious spirit? I even read a piece in the NY Times last year written by a "Chinese Venture Capitalist" (and right there, you know this is someone tied to the Chinese government because normal Chinese people don't have the freedom to just up and become venture capitalists) explaining how things like freedom of expression and civil rights are a relic of the past that's holding America down. Fuck that. I won't be part of it.

That spoiler about China doesn't really match the movie at all.

If you watch the movie, you'll see that nothing like that happens.

Rian Johnson was on a podcast, "The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith." recently. It's an intereting conversation that goes into some of the plot questions involved in this thread. Their Chinese distributor gave them money to shoot in China and that caused the plot to change. They didn't have enough money in the budget to go to Paris, which was the original scripted location. His choices were to dress up New Orleans as Paris or to go to Shanghai. He explained that he quickly warmed to the idea of going to China and needed to only make very minor changes to the screenplay and scenes already shot.

To boycott this film because of scenes taking place in China is silly.

Uhm....you're fucked up if you believe that shit. Nothing like that happened in the film. China isn't even a big deal in the film. It's like....maybe...like...what? 5% of where a bit of the film takes place?

The script needed a foreign location. Paris was too expensive. China says come here for cheap. They changed where a character did stuff there. That's it. It doesn't even impact the film really. Neat bit of the story though..but not important really aside from what a character attaches itself to something there. Could have been other good looking foreign place. Not a big fucking deal. Get your head out of the bullshit and really know wtf is going on in a film.

Yes. We're working w/ China. Guess what? You've bought shit tons of things made in China. You're probably not bitching about it either. If you are...well tough titty. China means absolute fuck all to the core of the film. It did however get a nice tidbit of dialogue which was neat now that I know why it was there over Paris. Funny.

Um, what? It does happen in the film. I even rolled my eyes at Jeff Daniels suggestion to go to China instead of France because China apparently rules all in the future. It stuck out to me and to see it was done to appease China censors is even worse.

All he says is "Trust me, go to China". He doesn't say why. Perhaps Paris is some sort of hellhole, who knows?

i took it as he knew China is where he would find his future wife so that's why he told him to go there.

China as the only decent people? Really? We only got glimpses of the future. And the people we're involved with in story? Mostly Baddies.

Sell out to what? Chinese producers contributed to the film's budget. At that point they become the boss and DO get to dictate certain terms. That's how it goes in the world of filmmaking. Whoever has the money gets to make the rules.

Where did you get decent people and China?

I will admit that I may have read too much into the China comment but I wouldn't be the first one to read too much into this movie.

From lamphorn's comment that you didn't read?

I thought it was funny when Jeff Daniels said it, and thought it was even more funny that he followed his advice.

Okay, so I liked most of the build-up of the film, along with tip-toeing through the paradoxical spaghetti that time travel that can happen with this type of film, but I will say that my main issue with the film was the 3rd act, it was paced soooooo slow, almost felt like a different film at time during that last segment of the film. Tighten that bit up, and I'd be a bit happier with the film. It easily worth a matinee showing if you like sci-fi time-travel films.

I was also a little put off by Gordon-Levitt's make-up (trying to look like a younger Bruce Willis). It was just a weird choice. I understand the eye color issue, but the eyebrows, and a bit of nose prostetics was made him look weird to me. But even if that's all I'm really complaining about, it was a solid film.

I give it 3 stars or a grade of B.

johnson's sizzle reel he used to help get the film off the ground, spoilers obviously:

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/51294350" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

I don't want to derail and get too off-topic, but there is a big difference between partnering up with foreign producers in a benign way and partnering up with a hostile and repressive regime. China is a fascist state. It's "film companies" and producers are all agents of its government. This is no different than American companies in the past doing business with the NAZI's for short-term gain and looking the other way.

The REAL issue with this for me is that our studios will start catering to the wishes of China and censor our movies. If you listen to interviews with the producer of Looper he explains how when you co-produce a movie with China, not only are you supposed to make the Chinese government look good, you are not allowed to show corrupt police officers of any nationality, or public officials or politicians who are anything but angels. That's not just your typical state film office request, that's ideological propaganda.

Next up, Iron Man 3, and Cloud Atlas, both Chinese co-productions. Now that Hollywood has got a taste for Chinese money, they will want ALL their tentpoles to be Chinese productions. Consider the consequences of that. "Red Dawn" was not a Chinese co-production but was changed to fit the desires of Chinese censors because MGM didn't want Chinese retaliation in the form of blocking OTHER movies of theirs from Chinese deals. See? China also just bought AMC theatres, making it the biggest theatre owner in the world. Not a benign foreign company, but the GOVERNMENT of a country that is set on world domination and oppression. Good luck EVER seeing a movie about the truth of China's pretend "economic rise" which is based on intellectual property theft, hacking, and currency manipulation that violates international law.

We used to have the Hays code, but now we're getting a taste of the China Code. In about 5 years I bet we won't be seeing many major studios making films that deal with ANY human rights or democracy issues. They're bosses in China won't be comfortable with that.

There are no Chinese police officers, public officials, or politicians in the flim. There are hardly any Chinese characters with speaking lines of any kind.

I highly doubt that.

Oh gotcha I see it now. Well, China did seem like the only decent place in the future, and probably the people were too.

Yup. If lamphorn wants to freak out about this, Looper is not the movie poster child of it.

Although the Chinese version does have more stuff with Bruce Willis in China, and gives his wife some lines. Johnson said that on the U.S. home release these will be included as deleted scenes, as opposed to offering both cuts, since the U.S. cut is his intended version.