Shot in 2009, No Man's Land, is a road movie that follows a provincial lawyer through the barren wastelands of Western China. Since then it has fallen foul of the Chinese censorship board SARFT time and time again, and to-date has never been screened publicly at home or abroad. Now that seems to have finally changed, with Filmbiz Asia reporting that statements on both China Film Group and lead actor Huang Bo's Weibo accounts state that the film will be released in China on 3 December.
This is great news, as Ning was shaping up to be one of the most exciting contemporary filmmakers currently working in the mainland. His films Mongolian Ping Pong, Crazy Stone and Crazy Racer were the perfect start to a career destined for greatness, only for it all to go wrong with No Man's Land. Ning appears to have ruffled so many feathers with the film that his follow-up, the mainstream, conventional and mostly unremarkable Guns And Roses felt almost like public penance for his perceived misdeeds.
There's no word yet on exactly what upset officials, nor how much the film has been altered in order to secure its release, but news that a new Ning Hao film - or rather an old one that we've been forbidden to see until now - is on the way, is excellent news all round!