David Fincher’s cult film fight clubof which a truncated version, in China, has aroused the astonishment of moviegoers in recent weeks, is now broadcast in the country in its original version, we learned on Monday February 7.
The communist power authorizes the distribution of only a handful of foreign films each year and the censors do not hesitate to delete scenes considered disturbing or subversive.
Twisted end
The fate of fight clubwith Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, was special: its final scene had been rewritten, more than two decades after the release of the American film, in 1999. Last month, moviegoers were moved to see that the version broadcast on the Tencent Video platform is the opposite of the original work.
In the film, the narrator played by Edward Norton kills his imaginary alter ego played by Brad Pitt, then witnesses the explosion of skyscrapers – the destruction of the modern world dreamed by the hero.
The version originally released in China ended just before with a black screen and text saying: “The police foiled the project and arrested all the criminals, preventing the explosion of the bombs. » The text specified that the character played by Brad Pitt had been interned in “a lunatic asylum”. Tencent did not comment on the restoration of the original version.
In 2019, several scenes of Bohemian Rhapsody referring to the sexuality of Freddie Mercury, the singer of the group Queen, had been erased from the version broadcast in China.
Hollywood studios sometimes take it upon themselves to cut certain scenes from films in the hope of obtaining clearance for the Chinese market. According to the wall street journalDisney had the script of the new Mulan to the Chinese authorities, to ensure that the film can be shown in the country. In 1998, the first version of the work, in cartoon form, was banned in China, in retaliation for the release of the film Kundunby Martin Scorsese, on the life of the Dalai Lama.