DVDs through Customs

[kookaburrah]

Dear all,
I'm about to move to Singapore, and had a question I was hoping you'd be able to help me with.
I have quite a few DVDs, all legally purchased, that I would like to bring with me. Most of them are of TV series (a bit of an addiction) such as LOST, West Wing, Weeds, Friends, 24, Boston Legal, Huff, 6 Feet Under, etc etc.
While most of them are fairly innocuous, I have no idea what material will offend the censors.
If I declare these (they would be shipped in my container), will they charge me to view them all?
Is there any material liable to offend?
Has anyone ever had anything censored?
Should I declare all titles in the inventory, or hope they don't look?
Your feedback would be hugely appreciated. If there's a good chance they'll keep anything, I would rather leave that behind.
Thank you very much!!

[sundaymorningstaple]

The following is the official stance. We cannot/will not advise you to do anything illegally here on the forum. I hope you can appreciate the position that could put us in.......

http://www.mda.gov.sg/wms.www/index_flash.aspx

Is it an offence to buy VCD/DVDs released in other countries and brought into Singapore?
Videos sold outside Singapore are considered to be uncensored when brought into Singapore. The MDA works closely with the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority to check on travellers who bring in uncensored and obscene videos at the checkpoints. At the same time, the MDA takes a balanced approach when travellers bring in items bought outside Singapore for personal consumption. These items include VCDs and DVDs.
Some of the VCD/DVDs brought in may be from the exempted categories which do not require classification. All videos brought into Singapore should be declared and submitted to the Board of Film Censors (part of the MDA) for classification. The Board classifies videos under the Films Act based on the content and does not determine their origin, i.e. whether the videos are pirated. Pirated videos are illegal under the Copyright Act.

Lot's of other useful links where this one was - in my links page below. Help yourself.....

[cbat]

Hi, I just moved to Singapore from Canada and my shipment just arrived last week, I also brought along a large number of DVD's. All I did was provide a list of all DVD's to custom's. I was not charged for viewing and they all came through without a problem. Having said this my collection was mainly TV shows and classic movies (westerns, clint eastwoods etc).

I also brought a large number of home made dvd's of shall we say less than pristine legal status which I did not declare. I had no problem with these either.

So my advise would be declare all of your legal stuff and unless it's a hardcore R rated film you shouldn't have any problem

[kookaburrah]

Thank you very much to both for your replies.
And SMS, although I realise my last question might be testing the boundaries, the previous questions were, I think, perfectly acceptable to be answered in a public forum.
I would still appreciate feedback on what the authorities might consider offensive. Here's a couple of examples:
- Weeds is a TV series about a recently widowed middle aged suburban mother in California, who decides to sell pot to pay her bills
- 6 Feet Under is another TV series with a gay couple as two of their central characters
Would these cause offense? I'd rather send these back home than having them confiscated.
I reiterate that none of my DVDs is a counterfeit. Also, none of my DVDs is rated R, although HBO et al., do seem rather happy to flash the odd nipple here and there.
Thanks again!

[micknlea]

Wasn't Six Feet Under shown here on HBO? I watched it, (but perhaps that was in HK. oops getting old and can't remember any more)
We brought heaps of DVDs and VCDs here with us from HK, all legal too I might add, including tv series and the like, just made a full list and declared them, also home videos/dvds as well. No problems.

[QRM]

Heres a list of banned films, Even South Park been barred!, a lot of the local will not have a clue about starving marvin jokes.

And no wonder I get blank looks when I talk about Kazakastan ( mind you they have not missed much)

Men In black seem ok, so that was a local urban myth that it was banned.

Singapore

* 1971: A Clockwork Orange was banned for over 30 years before an attempt for release was made in 2006. However the ban was not lifted when the submission for a M18 rating was rejected.
* 1974: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was prohibited from releasing in the island since the 1970s.
* 1979: Life of Brian contains inappropriate' religious content which led the film to be banned.
* 1980: Cannibal Holocaust was banned outright for its extreme violence.
* 1981: The Evil Dead has been banned since its release in 1981. The authority disallowed it for "excessive graphic violence and gore".
* 1986: Along with its prequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was categorised as banned by the authority. No submittance for re-rating was ever made.
* 1988: The Last Temptation of Christ was never allowed to be screened or released in video formats to the public for its controversial religious content.
* 1995: Lie Down with Dogs was banned for strong sexuality.
* 1999: The movie South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut shared the same fate with its banned television series.
* 2003: 15 was initially banned, and the Singapore board of censors later ruled that the film should be rated R(A) and made 27 cuts to the film.
* 2004: A Dirty Shame was banned for its crude humour and sexuality.
* 2004: Formula 17 was banned because it "portrayed homosexuality as normal, and a natural progression of society."[17]
* 2005: Hostel was banned for extreme impact violence of high impact gore with cruelty and racism to Singapore.
* 2005: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story shared the same fat its banned television series.
* 2006: Shortbus was banned for its explicit sexual content.
* 2006: The movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was banned for the extreme nudity during the fight in the hotel scene. It was cut off during its screening.

[durain]

borat is funny! how could they ban that! no sense of humour! i was told zoolander is ban in malaysia. it is true?

[frenzal]

Is there a way to search each film to see if it's been banned? I have such an amazing DVD collection (and some films certainly do have sex, violence, swearing and drug use [e.g. Requiem for a Dream]). Would hate for any of them to be confiscated

[sundaymorningstaple]

Start here: Film Classification Database .

Should help you a lot along with the list by QRM.

The Database will tell you how they were passed and what cuts were necessary in order to pass.

Example: Requiem for a Dream

Version 1 was originally submitted as a PG and was Banned.

It was later resubmitted as Version 2 an RA rating was given a decision of Clean (with an RA rating).

[frenzal]

Start here: Film Classification Database .

Should help you a lot along with the list by QRM.

The Database will tell you how they were passed and what cuts were necessary in order to pass.

Example: Requiem for a Dream

Version 1 was originally submitted as a PG and was Banned.

It was later resubmitted as Version 2 an RA rating was given a decision of Clean (with an RA rating).

lol PG?! It's 18+ rated even in Australia. So that means I can bring it over, right, if I understand you correctly: as long as a title has been approved without any cuts, I can bring it over.

[sundaymorningstaple]

No, that's not what I said. I said version 2 was approved as RA but I don't have a clue whether it was cut or not as it said "Version 2" which would suggest that there were some changes made by the producers (cuts to enable it to be passed with an RA and not "Banned" for instance. In this case you version would be unknown until the Censor board viewed it as it was banned previously. If it happened to be a CD then it might get confiscated or you might be given 3 strokes with the rotan or 30 lashes with a wet prayer shawl.

Seriously though, I'm not sure what would happen as I don't try to put myself in those types of scenarios.

[guitarnoise]

After spending some time here I'm starting to notice it's really slim pickings at the many DVD outlets and book stores. There's not a lot of engaging material on sale, at least not to my taste. Had I taken a closer look at books and DVDs before moving here I definitely would have stocked up.

[durain]

I'm relocating back to Australia in about a month and would like to get rid of most of my furniture before I return. I have been posting on forums and trying my luck with ebay but still not much luck.

Does anyone know of any furniture stores in Singapore which purchase second hand furniture? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks all.

hey, just last week or 2, someone was looking to buy used furniture at this forum. btw, you can sell your stuff in the forum's classifieds.

[sundaymorningstaple]

durain,

too early in the morning? Young'un got you pre-occupied? I'm not sure but I think your post is in the wrong thread!

[sillingw]

To OP - I also just brought along my whole collection, I shipped them in a box with my furniture, I provided a complete list. The Customs folks did open the box and go thru the DVD's - I know this as they put some back into the incorrect covers, I'm pretty sure they did not go thru them all as there were some 250 DVD's but they did a cursory check. I did not check exactly which films wre or were not allowed, but my collection is family oriented and did not seem to cause any problems.