Weibo removes HK filmmaker Johnnie To's account after 'controversial remark' made at film festival

Hong Kong film director Johnnie To’s presence on Weibo has been wiped out after he made a controversial remark regarding “totalitarianism” and “fighting for freedom” at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival. His Weibo account is currently non-existent, a check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE saw.

This comes as a video of To speaking at the start of the festival went viral across social platforms. Media intelligence firm CARMA saw a significant increase in mentions related to To's statement at Berlinale. One of the prominent mentions came from BBC News’ official Chinese Twitter page, which generated close to 4k engagements.

There were 18.5% negative mentions and 11.8% positive mentions in total, according to CARMA. "The majority of positive mentions came from To’s supporters who believed To has the courage to drop the truth while the other don’t. Netizens were generally disappointed by the fact that To has been censored by Chinese social media but some pointed out that they were not surprised by this outcome," said Charles Cheung, CARMA's HK GM. 

It is worth noting that the majority of negative mentions were in Chinese, with Chinese netizens criticising To’s statement at Berlinale as they do not see how his films have been “fighting for freedom”.

On 17 February, To expressed his views in Cantonese at the opening of the festival when asked by a journalist why film remains important in today’s world, “In my opinion, films have always been in the vanguard. When totalitarian rule emerges, when people lose their freedoms, cinema is the first to take the hit.”

“In most cases, cultural productions will be forcefully suspended, since the cinema speaks directly to the audience. That’s why dictators always target the cinema.” He added that all countries and people fighting for freedom globally should support the cinema.

However, To’s official Weibo account has been suspended one day after he made the controversial statement. A check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE saw some netizens reposting the video on Weibo to pay tribute to him, while some expressed their dissatisfaction towards his speech.

An Instagram account called “hkmoviedialogue”, which first posted the video, has received more than 48,000 likes and most of the comments respected To, with many agreeing with what To said and paid respect to him.

The movie maker has been nominated for Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards 18 times and for Best Director at the Golden Horse Awards eight times. This time he became only the second Hong Kong film director to judge at all three major European movie events after the actress Maggie Cheung.

To is also known for making controversial statements. Back in 2016, he defended the freedom of cinema at the premiere of the Hong Kong crime film Trivisa, saying that there needs to be freedom in creation without fetters.

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