Jackie Chan Film "Too Violent for China," Says Director

According to the Associated Press, Derek Yee told journalists at a press conference Monday that he considered toning down the violence in the upcoming action flick, Shinjuku Incident, so that Chinese censors could give it the go ahead, but ultimately decided against it.

"We tried to cut violent scenes to meet the requirements of the Chinese market, but producers invited to watch that version thought it was incomplete," he said.

Yee's version of the events is backed up by Solon So, chief executive of Chan's production company, JC Group.

The movie is about a refugee who escapes to Japan and becomes a hit man for the Yakuza organized crime syndicate. The film features scenes of characters having hands chopped off and being stabbed with knives.

China does not have a ratings system. Most films are released to general audiences, except for those that have political content such as exposes of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. Such films are heavily censored. But for the most part, Yee's concern wasn't politics. It was the violence.

Shinjuku Incident isn't the first film to not be released in China. The 2005 film, Memoirs of a Geisha, was not released on the mainland, allegedly because of the appearance of actresses Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li as Japanese entertainers. Relations between China and Japan remain tense.

Shinjuku Incident will be introduced in Hong Kong on April 2 and Japan on May 1.