Chinese film quits Tokyo festival over island row

BEIJING - A Chinese film has pulled out of this year's Tokyo International Film Festival over the ongoing Diaoyu Islands dispute, the film's distributor said on Thursday.

"The Japanese government and right-wingers have not shown a sincere attitude regarding the settlement of the dispute, which has seriously hurt the Chinese people's feelings," the production team said in a statement delivered to the film festival's organizing committee.

The production team expressed gratitude to the organizing committee for its recognizance of the film's quality and artistic level and said it expects to conduct normal cultural and artistic exchanges, the film's distributor Dong Wenjie said.

"Feng Shui" was the only Chinese film nominated in the competitive portion of this year's festival. The film's director and lead actress were invited to attend the event.

Dong said the film could have clinched the Best Film and Best Actress awards if it had not been withdrawn.

A similar incident occurred in 2010, when a Chinese film delegation pulled out of the event in protest after festival organizers refused to refer to the Taiwanese delegation as "China's Taiwan" or "Chinese Taipei."

More than nine Chinese-language films that were scheduled to be screened at the festival were subsequently withdrawn.

However, the Chinese films "The Piano in a Factory" and "Buddha Mountain" still received awards.