Da Vinci Code opening reignites controversy

Chinese viewers today became the first in the world to see The Da Vinci Code movie, as the controversial tale that challenges a basic premise of Christianity began its global rollout to protests and bad reviews.

A gala screening to a Beijing audience upstaged a highly-feted debut at the Cannes Film Festival by about four hours, in a move interpreted as underscoring the importance to Hollywood of China as a potential new market of millions of moviegoers.

The film version of Dan Brown’s murder mystery novel, based around the premise that Jesus fathered children, begins opening in cinemas around the world tomorrow.

Global time differences mean Asian viewers will be the first mainstream audiences.

The film has reignited a global row about the story’s depiction of Jesus. Many Christians consider it blasphemous and have demanded the book and film be banned.

In Asia, Christian leaders are especially worried that the movie may spread misinformation about their religion, a minority faith in a region dominated by Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.

Christians in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand have either protested the film or expressed concern. India temporarily halted the film’s release after a flood of complaints.

Lobbyists in Thailand persuaded local censors to cut the final 10 minutes out of the film, but the censors later reversed their position after Columbia Pictures appealed.

Australian Christians bought cinema advertisements challenging the movie’s plot. Hong Kong’s Catholic church has organised forums to “clarify the facts.”

Hours before the official press screening in Cannes, France, a British Roman Catholic nun, Sister Mary Michael, kneeled in prayer at the foot of the red carpet and recited a rosary.

In Athens, where 200 people waved crucifixes and Greek flags at a demonstration yesterday against the film, theologian Giorgos Moustakis called the book “defamatory to the founder of the Christian faith” – and said the film was even worse.

“Movies and television inflame passions. Their effect is immense compared to that of books,” said Moustakis, who teaches theology and Christian ethics at the American College of Greece.

As for the quality of the film – critics in Cannes were lukewarm.

“‘Da Vinci’ never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure,” wrote critic Kirk Honeycutt in the trade paper The Hollywood Reporter.

Associated Press critic Christy Lemire found the movie “cursory and rushed.”

One of the premises of the story is that Jesus Christ and one of his followers, Mary Magdalene, fathered children – and that his descendants are still alive.

“If Jesus Christ had a child and a wife, then Christianity would be destroyed,” said Thongchai Pradabchananurat, a Protestant leader in mostly Buddhist Thailand.

In Bombay, India, Joseph Dias, head of the Catholic Secular Forum, went on a hunger strike to protest the movie’s planned release in his country, where most of the 1 billion population is Hindu.

After receiving more than 200 complaints, India’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said he wanted to see the movie for himself before approving its release. Distributors who were ready to open the film on Friday said they now expect to have to wait a day or two.

Authorities in Singapore and South Korea rejected calls to ban the film, saying audiences understand it is fictional.

Philippine movie censor Marissa Laguardia said it’s important to preserve free speech in her country.

“Thirty-six countries have already reviewed this film and they have not banned it. So are we just out of the Stone Age?” Laguardia said.

Bishop Lim Cheng Ean in mostly Muslim Malaysia said the film could not challenge Christian faith.

“If Christians know their own faith, they will be strong enough,” he said.

Others are more pro-active.

Anglican Sydney Media, which promotes the church’s diocese in Australia’s largest city, has set up a Web site and bought cinema ads challenging the story’s theories.

Hong Kong’s Roman Catholic diocese plans to hold two forums called “Facing The Da Vinci Code – from Decoding to Disinfecting” that hear from a representative of the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei which, in “The Da Vinci Code,” helps to hide Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene.

In China, ruled by an atheistic communist government that regularly suppresses public debate on controversial topics, there has been little discussion about the film’s content.

Beijing doesn’t recognise the Vatican, which has criticised the movie.

The film was cleared by China’s usually strict censors without any cuts in March.

Efforts to re-establish ties between the Holy See and China, home to millions of underground Vatican loyalists, have been strained recently by China’s state-sanctioned Catholic church’s decision to install bishops without Vatican approval.