Four entries in the 32nd Hong Kong International Film Festival have generated controversy in Asia, reflecting the historical and political differences among participants at the annual film showcase.

Yasukuni, which looks at the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo, won the best documentary humanitarian award at the festival on Wednesday. But the film's Chinese director, Li Ying, told Reuters in Hong Kong he feared pressure will build to bar its release in Japan.

The Yasukuni shrine is considered controversial by many. Critics contend its museum contains revisionist accounts of Japan's actions in the Second World War. And its Book of Souls includes names of 1,068 Japanese convicted of war crimes.

Li, who has lived in Japan for 19 years, said the film was his attempt to understand Japan's refusal to confront its wartime past. "There is a kind of post-war amnesia in Japan and people haven't dealt with this issue responsibly," he said. 

Despite his attempt to depict Yasukuni in a neutral light, Reuters reports at least one cinema operator in Japan has decided to cancel plans to screen the two-hour film.

"Whether we'll be able to release the film is a delicate and tense issue," said Li.

He added he hoped to screen the film in China in the summer.

3 entries pulled

China's growing influence over Hong Kong cinema has promoted producers to pull three films — all Hong Kong-Chinese co-productions and originally scheduled to be world premières — from the Hong Kong festival because they had not received clearance from Chinese censors.

The films are:

• Zhang Yibai's Lost Indulgence, a drama set in Chongqing about a passenger who moves in with the family of a driver after he dies in a car accident.
• Han Yan's Winds of September — The Chinese Mainland Chapter, part of coming-of-age trilogy.
• A Decade of Love, 10 short films, each 10 minutes long, by 10 new Hong Kong directors on the subject of love in Hong Kong.

While the films contain nothing overtly controversial and the Associated Press says no official reasons have been given for the lack of approval, filmmakers are concerned about China's tightening grip on the media in anticipation of the Beijing Olympics in the summer.

Chinese director Lou Ye and producer Nai An were banned from making movies in China for five years after showing their romance, Summer Palace, at the Cannes Festival in 2006 without clearing it with Chinese censors.   

With an eye to the booming Chinese market, Hong Kong directors are increasingly making films with partners from mainland China, subjecting them to China's strict movie regulations. The films must receive government approval before they are shown at international festivals.

Jeffrey Chick, a spokesman for Hong Kong's Sundream Motion Pictures, said Thursday the filmmakers are still hopeful the films will be approved before the festival ends on April 16.

Lost, Indulgence will make its world première at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 23.

With files from the Associated Press