I always figured censored art was just old political stuff, then I saw the 2018 Chinese edits to Bohemian Rhapsody

I compared the original film to the version shown in China, and the difference was huge. They cut every single reference to Freddie Mercury being gay and having AIDS, over 2 minutes total. I used to think censorship was about blocking obvious propaganda, but this was about erasing a person's identity from a biopic. It made me see how modern censorship targets LGBTQ+ stories specifically, not just old books. Has anyone else seen a recent movie get edited that heavily for a foreign release?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona_anderson22d ago

Yeah, it's a huge deal. Cutting out someone's identity to make a movie 'safe' is wrong, not just a market choice. It changes the whole point of a biopic. I saw the side by side and it felt like they were trying to erase a real person's life, which is way worse than just cutting a random scene.

phoenix23522d ago

But is it really that big a deal? It's just a movie edit for a different market.