Why has the 'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey' movie been cancelled in Hong Kong?

THE release of the "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" slasher movie was suddenly cancelled last week in Hong Kong and Macau. A decision that's perhaps not so surprising, since over the last 10 years, the adorable bear has become a symbol of opposition to Xi Jinping and of censorship in China.

What could Pooh Bear possibly have done to China to be viewed as persona non grata?

In the horror film "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey," the honey-loving bear and his friend Piglet turn into bloodthirsty killers after being abandoned by Christopher Robin.

If this slasher version may seem a far cry from the original world of Winnie-the-Pooh, this is not the reason for the movie's cancellation in Hong Kong.

It is the distributor of the film, VII Pillars Entertainment, that announced the bad news via its social networks:

"It is with great regret to announce the scheduled release of 'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ in Hong Kong and Macau on March 23 has been cancelled. We are sorry for the disappointment and inconvenience," reads its Instagram post.

Despite the many scheduled screenings, no reason was given for the subsequent cancellations. On its Instagram account, one screening organizer, Moviematic, put the cancellation down to "technical reasons."

It's hard to know what the true reasons are behind the movie's cancellation. The OFNAA, The Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration, which is in charge of film classification in Hong Kong, had approved "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" as a Category 3 movie, which is only accessible to people aged 18 and over.

"The arrangements of cinemas in Hong Kong on the screening of individual films with certificates of approval in their premises are the commercial decisions of the cinemas concerned, and OFNAA would not comment on such arrangements," the organization said in a statement.

So if it's not the violent and bloody nature of the film that appears to pose a problem, why could this movie have been censored?

On closer inspection, this is not the first time Pooh Bear has been banned in China. The 2018 movie, "Christopher Robin," starring Ewan McGregor also fell foul of the country's censors.

By way of explanation, we may need to cast our minds back to 2013 and a photographed meeting between China's President Xi Jinping, and Barack Obama, then President of the United States.

On social networks, the photo of the two statesmen was compared to an image of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friend Tigger. Users did not fail to highlight the resemblance between Xi Jinping and Winnie-the-Pooh.

Since then, Winnie, or any image of Pooh Bear, has been banned in China, as this kind of mockery would undermine the Chinese president, according to the authorities.

On American social networks, especially on Twitter, montages continue to be published, much to the delight of social users who seem to find the situation amusing.