Chinese woman sues cinema for boring her with ads

China may not have quite the reputation for litigious eccentricity enjoyed by the US, but that may change with the news that a Beijing woman is suing a local cinema for wasting her time.

Chen Xiaomei claims she was unreasonably treated by the cinema's owners and the distributors of the film she went to see, because she was not warned there would be 20 minutes of adverts prior to the screening of the main feature. She is demanding a full refund (35 yuan, £3.35), an extra 35 yuan in compensation for emotional damages and a written apology.

In addition, Xiaomei is calling for the Polybona International cinema in the northern city of Xian to publish the length of advertisements on its website, in the lobby or on its customer hotline. In total, they should be less than five minutes, she says.

Xiaomei's case has been accepted by the People's Court in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province. The film she went to see, Aftershock, has become the highest-grossing domestic film of all time in China, earning 650m yuan. Directed by Feng Xiaogang, it tells the story of a mother's emotional reunion with her daughter, three decades after a 1976 earthquake devastated the Chinese city of Tangshan, killing more than 240,000 people. It is not known when the case will be heard.