:23:02
You cannot stop this.
:23:05
We can change the present,
even the future
:23:08
but never the past.
:23:10
The Chief of the censors was
Chung-Shing Shu.
:23:13
Enemies of the Middle Kingdom!
:23:15
He made certain no one
wrote any new stories...
:23:18
You have spewed filth...
:23:20
...on pain of death.
:23:21
...and called it art.
:23:25
Your writings weaken the moral fiber
of our kingdom.
:23:30
Now, we will correct your thinking
...permanently.
:23:36
All his life, author Wu had tried
to obey the censors.
:23:41
But when he grew old, he decided
to set down
:23:44
the tales he had heard
from the common people.
:23:47
About a naughty Monkey god
and his adventures.
:23:52
A book he called,
Journey to the West.
:23:58
But Shu's gang of critics,
the Five Traditional Masters
:24:03
heard from their spies about author
Wu's forbidden book.
:24:14
Artists are like insects.
:24:16
Swat a few, and more fly out
of the dung heap.
:24:21
Take Author Wu's manuscript away.
:24:24
And, of course, kill him.
:24:29
What, what are you doing?
:24:34
Oh, let me go!
Stop!
:24:37
He cannot hear you.
:24:39
I can't just watch!
:24:42
We've got to do something.
:24:45
Wu gave up his life that night
for his writing.
:24:50
But Shu soon discovered that
:24:52
even fire could not destroy this book...
:24:55
that its powers were greater than
he had ever imagined.
:24:58
When it comes to decadent art