A Chinese woman is suing a cinema and the distributors
of domestic box-office hit "Aftershock" for wasting her time by
showing 20 minutes of commercials before the movie, state media
said Tuesday.
Chen Xiaomei claims the Polybona International Cinema in the
northern city of Xian and film distributors Huayi Brothers Media
Corporation should have told her how long the pre-movie
advertisements lasted, Xinhua news agency said.
Chen, who is a lawyer, has accused Polybona and Huayi Brothers
of wasting her time and violating her freedom of choice.
The case has been accepted by the People's Court in Xian, the
capital of Shaanxi province, Xinhua said, citing a statement from
the court.
The report did not say when the case would be heard.
Chen is demanding the companies refund her 35-yuan ticket (5.20
dollars), pay her 35 yuan in compensation and one yuan for
emotional damages and write her an apology, the report said.
She has also advised the cinema to publish the advertisement
times on its website, in the lobby or on its customer hotline and
asked Huayi Brothers to cut the length of commercials to less than
five minutes.
"Aftershock", which is about an earthquake that devastated a
Chinese city in 1976, has become the highest-grossing domestic
film, raking in 650 million yuan, Xinhua said.
The movie directed by Feng Xiaogang tells the story of a
mother's emotional reunion with her daughter, three decades after a
massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated the northern city of
Tangshan, killing more than 240,000 people.
