You’ve got to love this, folks–we thought Cash for Clunkers was bad, try the Chinese version: Moola For Movies.

If you’re over in China right now, and there’s a pretty good chance that if you actually ARE in China you’re not allowed by law to read this anyway, but if you’re in China right now, theatres are handing out nine hundred thousand passes  good for a discount to a “patriotic movie”.  These passes, however, are only good if you buy a ticket to a domestic movie first.

So buy a pass, get a discount to see another movie.  Frankly, I’ve seen some Chinese movies–Jet Li in the Once Upon A Time In China series is one of the better ones I’ve seen–and it’s really not that bad a prospect.  As deals go, this one’s really pretty sweet. Sound like a ripoff, you say?  Well, maybe…but I’ll tell you that the biggest film of 2009 in China stars Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Andy Lau…and it’s called The Great Cause of China’s Foundation.

That’s one of those “patriotic movies” they talked about.