HOT AIR BALLOON FLIGHT

View In Browser

Nectar Gan and Steve George

 

'Fight Club' has a new ending in China. And this time, the authorities win

 

More than two decades after its release, "Fight Club" has been given a very different ending in China — and this time, the authorities win.

 

Chinese fans of David Fincher's cult classic were enraged over the weekend when they noticed a version of the movie available on popular Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video completely removes its iconic ending.

 

The finale of "Fight Club" shocked audiences when the film hit theaters in 1999. Spoiler alert: In a massive twist, the narrator, played by Edward Norton, realizes that Brad Pitt's slick-talking Tyler Durden character is his imaginary alter ego, and kills him off.

 

In the final scene, the narrator stands with his girlfriend, played by Helena Bonham Carter, as they watch explosives blow up a cluster of skyscrapers — all part of what was originally presented to the audience as Durden's plan to destroy consumerism by erasing bank and debt records.

 

That amount of anarchy — and the government's inability to stop it — doesn't appear to have passed muster with China's notoriously strict censorship rules.

 

In the version available on Tencent Video, which CNN Business was able to view on the streaming platform, the entire scene featuring the explosions has been cut out. Instead, it has been replaced with a caption explaining to audiences that the authorities arrived just in time to save the day.

 

"Through the clue provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding," the caption reads. "After the trial, Tyler was sent to [a] lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012."

 

The new ending has infuriated some viewers. It wasn't clear when this version of the film appeared on Tencent Video, but screenshots of the edited film gained traction in China over the weekend, as commenters complained about the drastic alteration.

 

"This is too ridiculous," wrote one person on Tencent Video's page for the movie. Another called the change "a pillar of shame in cinematic history."

 

"No one wants to pay money to watch a classic that has been so ruined to such an extent," yet another person wrote on Douban, a movie review site.

 

Tencent declined to comment about the edit. CNN Business also reached out to the Cyberspace Administration of China, the regulator that oversees streaming platforms, as well as the China Film Administration, but neither government agency responded to a request for comment.

 

While it's unclear how or when the edit was made, it's not uncommon for foreign movies to undergo heavy censorship before finding a legitimate broadcast home in China. And the Chinese companies that hold the rights to international films in the country often self-censor to appease regulators before general releases.

 

According to the version of the film available on Tencent Video, the Chinese publisher of "Fight Club" is Pacific Audio & Video Co., a company based in the city of Guangzhou. It's affiliated with state-owned Guangdong Radio and Television.

 

A Pacific Audio & Video employee told CNN Business that she could not comment about the movie's streaming release. She did say, however, that the company no longer owned the rights to the movie's DVD release in the country, which it obtained more than a decade ago.

 

This isn't the first time Chinese audiences have been able to watch "Fight Club" legitimately in the country. The movie was shown at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2006 — an event that Norton and other Hollywood stars even attended — according to Chinese media reports at the time.

 

That same festival screened the movie again in 2017. The China Film Archive in Beijing has also held screenings, according to Chinese media.

 

CNN Business did not attend those events, and so can not verify whether those screenings were edited. However, one Douban commenter who wrote about her experience watching the movie at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2017 remarked about the "much anticipated ending," including the collapsing buildings.

 

Film censorship has a long history in China.

 

Since the early 1990s, authorities have allowed just a few dozen foreign films to be screened in the country each year — only nine of the 26 Oscar best picture winners were screened publicly in China from 1994 to 2019, for example.

 

Movies or shows with controversial themes — such as those that purportedly depict China in a bad light, portray taboo subjects like the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, or feature LGBTQ storylines — are kept out entirely. And since China lacks a film rating system, any content approved by Chinese regulators is heavily edited to remove certain scenes, such as graphic sex or violence.

 

When the Oscar-winning Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" was released in China in 2019, for example, any mention of the Queen singer's sexuality — as well as his AIDS diagnosis — was edited out.

 

And the American blockbuster fantasy drama "Game of Thrones," which built its popularity on graphic sex and violence, was censored so heavily on Tencent Video that some viewers complained that it was turned into a staid "medieval European castle documentary."

Xi meets IOC president ahead of Olympics

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, on Tuesday. Their meeting comes less than two weeks before the Winter Olympics start in the Chinese capital on February 4. Xi has not left China during the pandemic, and his meeting with Bach is his first known in-person meeting with a foreign dignitary in more than a year.

Tennis bosses relax rules on protest shirts

The Australian Open will allow people to wear shirts that say "Where is Peng Shuai?" CEO of Tennis Australia Craig Tiley told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday.

His comments come several days after security guards shut down a small protest against the Chinese Communist Party's alleged mistreatment of tennis player Peng Shuai. Protesters on Friday unfurled a banner that read, "Where is Peng Shuai?" and also wore T-shirts with the slogan.

Guards at the tournament initially confiscated the banner, which they later gave back, and told the protesters they could stay if they covered up their T-shirts.

The incident sparked controversy online, with several tennis players — including Nicolas Mahut and retired champion Martina Navratilova — accusing organizers of bowing to outside pressures. 

On Tuesday, Tiley told AFP that people would be allowed to wear the shirts "as long as they are not coming as a mob to be disruptive but are peaceful."

He added that some people had come with a banner and two large poles, which will still not be allowed.

"If you are coming to watch the tennis that's fine, but we can't allow anyone to cause a disruption at the end of the day," he told AFP.

CNN has reached out to Tennis Australia for comment but has not yet heard back.

Last November Peng was feared to be held incommunicado by the Chinese government after she accused retired Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of forcing her into sex during a years-long on-off relationship.

After a month of growing international concern about her safety and whereabouts, Peng denied having made the sexual assault claim and said she has "always been free" — but skepticism remains about how freely she has been allowed to communicate.

 

The Women's Tennis Association has continued to call for a thorough and transparent investigation into Peng's allegations and suspended all tournaments in China over her safety.

 

— From CNN's Angus Watson 

China's top cybersecurity regulator is vowing to crack down on "illegal" online content as part of a campaign to clean up the internet ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics and one of the country's most important annual holidays.

 

The Cyberspace Administration of China announced Tuesday that its month-long internet "purification" campaign is intended to create a "healthy, happy, and peaceful online environment."

 

The powerful internet watchdog — which President Xi Jinping set up in 2014 in the name of protecting China's internet and data security — tied the campaign to the start of the Lunar New Year, a major festival that runs from January 31 to February 6.

 

But its timing also coincides with the beginning of the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will kick off at the start of February. The games mark the largest international sporting event that China has hosted since Xi took power in 2012, and his government has attached great importance to them as a chance to display a powerful and unified China.

 

According to the cyberspace agency's plan, the homepages of key media sites, trending topic search lists, push pop-up windows, and important news content pages must be carefully managed to present "positive information." It added that obscene, vulgar, bloody, violent and other illegal or bad information should be eradicated to create a "positive online atmosphere."

 

The campaign isn't a complete surprise, as Beijing last year embarked on a sweeping regulatory campaign to tighten control of the internet and purge what it sees as problems in the online space and the entertainment sector.

 

Last June, the cybersecurity agency launched an online campaign to target "chaotic" celebrity fan culture. A later expansion of the crackdown spread to the entertainment industry, as authorities pledged to eradicate "unhealthy" content from programs, ban celebrities with "incorrect politics" or "effeminate style," and cultivate a "patriotic" atmosphere.

Around Asia

• At least 19 people died after a karaoke bar in Indonesia was set ablaze on Tuesday, following a brawl between rival gangs of youths.
• More than 20 Covid-19 cases have been identified aboard an Australian navy ship sailing to disaster-hit Tonga, complicating aid efforts to the virus-free Pacific island nation.
• Thailand's narcotics board said on Tuesday it would remove cannabis from its drugs list, paving the way for households to grow the plant.
• North Korea fired two cruise missiles on Tuesday morning, according to the South Korean military. If confirmed as a test, the missiles would mark the fifth such action this year by the Kim Jong Un regime.