>> We are used to new scenes being released from movies previously film that we hadn't seen.
Director's cuts the Snyder cut things like that. But sometimes films change
for very different reasons. It doesn't necessarily require George Lucas.
We have an instance of that in China imported films are often altered to
show that law enforcement, those on the side of justice always trumps the villain.
Well, what does that mean? They will literally edit out and change the way movies end to change
the message of the movie. One example of that is that the 1999 film by David Fincher is Fight Club
originally ends with, by the way, this is a spoiler alert, but it came out in 1999.
If you were gonna watch it, you'd watch it. Okay, ends with the narrator killing his split
personality Tyler Durden with a female lead Marla Singer. He then watches all the buildings explode
outside the window and collapse, suggesting Tyler's anarchists plan to destroy consumerism
is in the works. Okay, so that was, I think for a lot of people, a very shocking end to the film,
you probably didn't expect that it's violence revolutionary all of that.
If you watched it here, if you watch it in China, at least on certain sources, that is
not the ending that you got. In the version of the Chinese streaming site Tencent video,
the explosion scene has been removed and instead, text comes up to explain what happens at the end.
It's almost like the Breakfast Club, but like for state propaganda. So instead of that explosion
scene, you got this saying through the clue provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured
out the whole plan and arrested all criminals successfully preventing the bomb from exploding.
After the trial Tyler was sent to a lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment.
He was discharged from the hospital in 2012. So I guess he's still alive and I feel like I know
a little bit more about his life, but that's a little bit depressing, hardly dramatic.
And also demonstrates not just a willingness to subvert artistic freedom
to prop up the messaging of the state, but a little bit of a mystery of the movie.
Tyler was the fictional guy. How did he go to the mental hospital? Think about that. Anyway,
it's unclear at this point if the ending was altered out of self censorship by the streaming
site or by government order. Tencent video declined to comment. I think understandably a
source familiar with the matter said the film was edited by the copyright owner and then approved by
the government before it was sold to streaming sites for distribution and Disney, which owns
the film's production company, 20 Century Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Don't expect Disney to weigh in on anything having to do with Chinese censorship or ending changes or
anything like that. But some people in China are not happy with these changes, especially if as
many apparently were they had access to pirated copies or copies that had the actual ending.
One person on the microblogging site Weibo said there is no point watching this film
without that scene. I mean it's still entertaining I guess in some ways but
it kind of cuts out the message. Now I'm not saying you should just take a face value.
Everything that happens in these movies, plenty of all right fascists in the US
have drawn all the wrong conclusions from movies like Fight Club as well as things like the Matrix.
But anyway like you do have to allow a little bit of freedom for artists to tell the sort of
tail that they want, especially if it's about a reflection of something that's actually happening
in society. So for instance in 2003 the Hong Kong film Naked Ambition was released in the mainland.
The original story was about the rise of poor porn stars. It was edited into one
about how Hong Kong and Chinese police worked together to crack down on the porn industry.
Well at that point, why are you even playing the movie if you're gonna directly undercut
it? And instead of making it something that might inspire people to feel a little bit of compassion
or empathy for people who are often abused and ignored vilified you instead making about.
Yeah, we locked him up. Well that's great. I don't know
personally I think in that way if you wanna go down this road you can ruin pretty much
everything. For instance, many people classically have watched Star Wars a new
hope and found the triumph of the rebel band over that dastardly empire are pretty inspirational.
But what if when Luke goes to fire that proton torpedo instead of blowing up the death star,
it just fades to black and you get this message. Luke Skywalker and his band of rebel scum were
foiled in their terroristic attack on the invincible death star. The thermal exhaust
port was in no way a design flaw anyone saying otherwise it's a scruffy looking nerf herder.
The rebels were captured and will spend the rest of their lives in re education activities
in the spice mines of kessel. They have denounced their former comrades with smiles on their faces
kind of dramatic. But I don't know, it just doesn't have the same flavor. So anyway, look, I'm
not gonna be able to get through to propagandists or sensors in China anymore than apparently I can
get through to the right who actually does want to do the same sorts of things that are already here.
But I don't know to the extent that you can fight for artistic freedom.
We benefit from these things and we don't, by the way, we don't have to enjoy all of it. We
don't have to like the message of every movie. There's plenty that are bad for my point of view.
But that doesn't mean that they can't have value for someone. I don't have to like The
God is not Dead series. I can just choose as most people have to never watch it.