Jackie Chan's new movie will not be released in China - because its director DEREK YEE has deemed it "too violent" for the country's cinema-goers.
The action man appears in Shinjuku Incident, a Chinese-language film which stars Chan as a refugee who escapes to Japan and gets embroiled in the local gang culture.
The $25 million (£17 million) movie features several gruesome scenes, including one character getting his hand chopped off and being stabbed with knives.
And while Yee believes the picture would pass China's strict censorship laws, he fears the violence would be too shocking for local audiences in a country that has no age restriction for movie releases.
He says, "We tried to cut the violent scenes to meet the requirements of the Chinese market, but producers I invited to watch that version thought it was incomplete. For us, the problem was just the violence."
Yee adds that Chan, who has invested some of his own money in the movie, agreed with his decision.
Shinjuku Incident will be released in Chan's native Hong Kong and southeast Asia in April (09), and in Japan in May (09).