With over a billion potential movie fans, China has quickly become Hollywood's most
coveted demographic, which explains why studios are bending over backwards to appeal to Chinese
audiences and appease Chinese government censors.
It happens all the time, but here's a look at some of the most blatant examples of movies
Hollywood was forced to change for China.
Star Trek Beyond
After J.J. Abrams departed the Star Trek franchise, Taiwanese director Justin Lin was brought
in to give Star Trek Beyond some of the kick he had previously provided to four Fast and
Furious films.
During the Asian press tour for Star Trek Beyond, Lin revealed that he tailor made the
film to appeal to Chinese audiences specifically, interviewing Chinese film fans to see what
they liked.
"I talked to a lot of people on why they go to movies, what kind of movies they want to
see.
And the thing that I got back was that everyone here, such great people and they work so hard,
and they want to get a sense of like to escape and to really kind of just enjoy, have fun,
laugh and enjoy big action, and I feel like this movie is tailor-made for the Chinese
audience."
Midnight Cowboy
If there's one thing Chinese censors really don't like, it's LGBTQ characters and themes.
For decades, the government has cracked down on everything gay, leading to some films being
butchered beyond comprehension.
Case in point: the 1969 classic Midnight Cowboy, which one Chinese-Malaysian film buff described
in Anthropologica as a confusing mess when he saw a censored version in the 1970's.
"The first thing about homosexuality that I remember making an impact on me was the
movie Midnight Cowboy.
It made me more confused than ever.
I didn't speak English and trying to read the subtitles in Chinese, I didn't know what
was going on.
It was very badly edited for Chinese audiences."
​X-Men: Days of Future Past
When it comes to tokenism, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing has had more than her share of
problems, particularly with superhero films.
After being signed up for Iron Man 3, it turned out her role was for a scene that only appeared
in the Chinese release.
And her experience on X-Men: Days of Future Past was almost as bad.
Bingbing signed a contract to appear in four X-Men films, but instead, her character Blink
has been in just one, with barely any dialogue to show for it.
Bingbing told The Star that she had her suspicions when director Bryan Singer contacted her about
the role.
"In the comics, Blink is a Caucasian girl, so I was curious why Bryan [Singer] wanted
an Asian to play the role."
Unfortunately, we all know the answer.
Transformers: Age of Extinction
The producers behind Transformers: Age of Extinction went all out to pander to Chinese
audiences.
Not only were some of the film's biggest moments filmed in China, the movie's world premiere
was held in Hong Kong.
Plus, it's jam packed with product placement, some of which doesn't even make sense, like
Chinese ATMs in Texas.
But hey, of all the things that make no sense about the Transformers films, that's not even
in the top fifty.
​The Karate Kid
This remake of the classic '80s Karate Kid changed essentially everything about the original
in order to appeal to Chinese audiences.
In fact, it's not even about karate at all, as the updated version features Jaden Smith
moving to China, where he learns the finer points of the Chinese art of kung fu from
Hong Kong legend Jackie Chan.
The pandering was bad enough that The Guardian suggested it should come with disclaimer that
the film was brought to you by the "China National Tourist Office".
Sounds about right.
Logan
Given how hyper violent the superhero blockbuster Logan was, it's no surprise that censors ended
up pressuring Fox into cutting a whopping 14 minutes from the film's run time.
What's surprising is that they didn't demand even more cuts.
In fact, Logan was the first film released in China under a new, less restrictive law
that introduced the concept of age-based film ratings, with fans being warned in advance
that "'elementary school students and pre-school children must be accompanied by parents or
guardians."
Essentially, China got a PG rated version of Logan, rather a G rated version.
Baby steps!
Cloud Atlas
Audiences all over the world were perplexed by the convoluted and complex sci-fi opus
Cloud Atlas, which wove multiple storylines in multiple time periods together to form
a larger epic narrative.
But film fans trying to figure out the plot in China faced an even more daunting challenge,
as censors cut an incredible 40 minutes from the film, including an entire storyline involving
a same sex romance between in 1930's Britain.
The film's three directors, Tom Tykwer and Lana and Lilly Wachowski, claimed to be totally
fine with the changes, telling reporters in China that they trusted their Chinese distributors
to get the edits right.
But if you really want to understand the story, you might be better off just reading the book.
Independence Day: Resurgence
Since the original Independence Day was never released in China, Fox had to go a different
route in drumming up interest in 2016's sequel.
They started by writing a story where America teams up with China to save the world, and
followed that up by casting Chinese pop star Angelababy in a minor role and then heavily
hyping her bit part in promotional material.
Chinese audiences found that annoying, but not as bad as some of the blatant product
placement.
Not only does Liam Hemsworth's American pilot inexplicably use Chinese instant messaging
service QQ…
"Give them a little credit, Jake…"
...but a Chinese drink called Moon Milk features prominently, leaving perplexed viewers venting
their frustrations online.
One Weibo user sarcastically posted, "When getting revenge on evil aliens, everyone should
take two boxes of MengNiu Moon Milk with them."
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