The screening of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and HoneyPooh: Blood and Honey, a British slasher film that is due to be released in Hong Kong this week, has been cancelled for technical reasons, according to movie websites.
Moviematic, which had organised a screening of the film for Tuesday evening, reported the cancellation of its social media pages. Several other websites and media reported the cancellation of screenings.
The movie s distributor in Hong Kong, VII Pillars Entertainment, did not respond to requests for comment. A Facebook link showed a message saying ticketing was temporarily unavailable.
In the past, Chinese censors have targeted the main character of the film, originally conceptualised by English author AA Milne, due to memes that compare the bumbling bear to President Xi Jinping.
The comparisons began in 2013 when Xi visited the US and met his then counterpart, Barack Obama, and some online commentators seized their likeness to Pooh and Tigger.
Some people have used the image of Pooh to signal dissent.
Hong Kong's government didn't respond immediately to a request for comment.
A new censorship law in Hong Kong was put in place in 2021 and barring films that endorse, support, glorify, encourage and incite activities that could harm national security. Some films have been prevented from being shown in the Chinese special administrative region.
After the city was rocked by anti-government protests, Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020. The law sets out punishments for anything deemed to be terrorist, secession, colluding with foreign forces and terrorism.
Two films were dropped from Hong Kong's international film festival last year after failing to get approval from authorities.
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