CHINA:Will China be shaken or stirred by the new James Bond film? 007 has seen off many a dastardly foe and evil genius in his long career, but the suave British secret agent has never successfully breached the Bamboo Curtain. Until now, when Casino Royale makes its Chinese debut, 45 years after Bond began plying his deadly trade on the screen.
Getting Bond on to Chinese screens has been a tough call, as 007's famed fondness for espionage in other jurisdictions or "third countries" has meant he has continually fallen foul of China's beady-eyed censors.
On top of this, Bond's "licence to kill", maverick attitude, fondness for violence and sexual situations are anathema to the kinds of values China likes to embrace in its movies. But times are changing, and Casino Royale has been given the go-ahead.
"The censors took some time to approve it and they approved it with no cuts," said Li Chow, Sony Pictures' general manager in China. "Everyone has seen James Bond movies on pirated DVDs, so expectations are very high. The fact it's the first Bond makes it much more important - after 45 years, 21 films, this is, finally, the first one in China," said Ms Chow.
With his fast cars, flashy watches and razor-sharp suits, Bond was a true icon of capitalism, but these days the lifestyle he follows is the one most young men in China want to follow. "Chinese people like Bond because they like everything he represents - fast cars, beautiful women. He's cool," said Ms Chow.
The fact so many of Bond's escapades took place during the cold war era has made it difficult for officials in communist China to embrace a man who is effectively an enemy spy.
The censors were reportedly won over by the absence of cold war references in the film, and the studio emphasised the fact that the film is about fighting a common enemy - the terrorist.
The new Bond, Daniel Craig, co-star Eva Green and director Martin Campbell, will be among the Bond team attending the premiere today in Beijing and tomorrow night in Shanghai. The distributors are expecting it to be the biggest foreign movie in China this year, and are sending an unprecedented number of prints to cinemas.
The film's distributors had hoped for a day-and-date release - where the film is released in many markets around the world at the same time - back in November when it first opened, but this had to be abandoned after it was forced to give way for a "blackout" to help boost domestic films.
China usually has "blackouts" two or three times a year, where they put a freeze on the release of foreign films to promote patriotic domestic fare and propaganda movies. Last year there were five "blackouts".