Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.
No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.
Usually, they only censor the explicit content. But this is the first time that AI tools were used to directly alter the content of the original film.
By the way, the film has been withdrawn from a wide release in China after receiving too many complaints.
ridiculous chinese censorship
*looks inside*
*Private company (the producers of the movie in fact) makes decision to do extremely stupid and unnecessary thing for Chinese localisation*
*Media blames Chinese Government for thing the Chinese Government didn't ask for*
EDIT: Is this even real? I am suspicious - https://hexbear.net/comment/6521304
EDIT2: Yeah it's real but the blame still isn't China itself.
I'm starting to get a little suspicious of Xiaohongshu at this point, they seem to be so determined to prove that China isn't some utopia that they even go all in on western style anti-China propaganda efforts. If their goal is to get people to actually understand China properly, they're doing a terrible job with posts titled like this.
How is this anti-China propaganda? This is openly discussed on Chinese social media. The only reason I post is because Hexbear has a large queer community who care about this stuff.
They have trot politics its lowkey annoying. I was talking to a trot recently who started talking about how china is oppressing the global south by exporting commodities and everything started to click lmao
How do I have trot politics? Trots would hate Mao and Deng. I am fully supportive of Mao and Deng policies as you can freely read through my comment history.
I am seriously curious how, after posting for years on this website, people still misrepresent my politics!
Western leftist who has only seen Trotskism, seeing a second leftist ideology: "Getting a lot of 'Trotskist 
' vibes from this..."
Can I just say, that emoji on this site for *looks inside* is really funny in context.
Hexbear be peeking
The dope ass bear has a boopable snoot, and sticking his face through a door like that is just asking to have his snoot booped!
Danger boop
Imma boop it anyway.
If bears not for hugs, why bears so friend shaped and made of cute?
Media blames Chinese Government for thing the Chinese Government didn't ask for
You can make that argument if you want but just realize you're just saying the free market rules supreme and this is a slippery slope.
Next when Chinese capitalist media shows even more bigotted views you can also excuse it away by just shrugging it off "but why would the government ever control the media in the first place".
You can't simultaneously make the argument that the CPC controls capitalists which is the #1 excuse dengists make, and then turn around and say "but yes actualy the bigoted censorship thing is completely laissez faire capitalism the CPC has no control over".
People can cope however they want but holding simultaneously exclusive views should be a red(no pun intended) flag.
Isn't this what the reddit nerds call strawmanning? I don't hold any of those views. I would very much like China to enforce an ultra gay state. All media should be forced to be gay and China should be criticised for not using state power to achieve that. The fact that China has allowed its population to remain culturally backwards and homophobic for so long instead of using the state to push social views forwards is absolutely something it should be criticised for.
I can absolutely hold that view while simultaneously saying "But this isn't censorship by the government".
They made it a trans love story
lmao
Looks like this site was funded in the past by the NED before DOGE got em. Hate to cite Wikipedia but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Digital_Times#Staff_and_operations
They’re libs lol. So are many users of xiaohongshu (the platform) and zhihu (Chinese Quora) that reported stuff like this. They are the ones who care the most about LGBT topics.
NED is literally the CIA
Hey, so I was out all yesterday and completely missed this thread and ensuing light struggle session but I'll give some additional context as I know it:
The writer & director had no fucking idea lmao, he was completely blindsided by the changes and only found out when journalists in China (as to who they work for, no idea soz) started asking him questions about editing the cut and sent him basically the same screenshot (i think from a different platform, caption was different but it's the exact same comparison screenshot of the film). He first found out on the 15th. There are some other funny edits, such as additional steam vfx blurring Dave Franco's bare ass in the shower scene and some others he hasn't dropped in the group chat.
Seems like the producers & Neon people were claiming to have had no idea either, as they all apparently went straight to the lawyers after a day or so and were basically asking Michael to make the decision on whether to completely pull from China or not as they had 'clear breaches' of contracts and literal 'admissions' that the film had been altered without consent. At this point he's not making any additional money on where it's being distributed, so allowing him the decision to completely pull it and lose someone millions seems like an admission that someone fucked up/gambled wrong.
Without having read the thread for any investigation on the intricacies of film distribution in China, I can only go off a conversation we had last week when we were halfway to getting decently drunk and watching Salo at a cinema on Wednesday night. It seems like he's been told by various legal people/producers that this happens a bit - The distributors buy it and just make changes without authorisation to seemingly pre-empt the ratings/censor's office and hope that the hollywood crackers either never find out or care. As to whether it is a case of pre-alteration before submission to the gov, changes made by the gov / requested alterations, or even a sneaky recut provided to the chinese distributor without the director's knowledge, I can't say for sure. There seemed to be some suggestions that Michael's legal could demand that some alterations be reversed and have the distributor resubmit the film, which lends a bit of credence to the idea that distributors just fucking do this but go too far, self-censoring beyond necessity before even seeking gov approval or a film rating/classification.
Either way, the whole thing was a bit overshadowed by his second film being greenlit, but he was legitimately pissed at the alterations and now having to make a choice where he could be perceived as throwing LGBTQIA+ people under the bus for money (when he makes no additional money whatsoever from the film being distributed anywhere) or being seen as sinophobic and getting no traction in China ever again if he pulls it or blames anyone in China for the issue.
unrelated, but apparently the film was doing quite well in russia.
Thanks for the update. This explains a lot and tracks with what I have read from the Chinese internet.
Unfortunately there are some that tried to blame it on the producers, but your explanation pretty much clarified and tracked with what I have said in this thread.
Anyway, the film has been withdrawn from a wide theatrical release due to receiving too much complaints, so I guess they won’t have to deal with it anymore.
I know from previous discussions about this that the LGBTQ media censorship in China is sadly a real thing. Here’s the 2017 guidelines I looked at before: https://web.archive.org/web/20170630135640/http://www.cnsa.cn/2017/06/30/ARTI0Qg4cp7jtd1Z5o0RnfzM170630.shtml
Auto-translated portion in question:
(6) Rendering obscene pornography and vulgar low-level interest:
- Specifically show the plots of prostitution, whoring, prostitution,removed, masturbation, etc.;
- Show and display abnormal sexual relations and sexual behavior, such as incest, homosexuality, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse and sexual violence;
- Show and promote unhealthy views and states of marriage and love, such as extramarital love, one-night stand, sexual freedom, wife swap, etc.;
On this topic it’s often very difficult to determine what’s real and what isn’t, given that you have western media or CIA cutouts distorting the narrative for their own purposes. I try to look into the published regulations directly, but for these 2017 guidelines it doesn’t seem to explicitly discuss gay marriage. Were there new guidelines published, or is this some kind of a new push? Or is this just a company that misinterpreted the guidelines and did the AI stuff out of misinformation or paranoia?
This Zhihu thread has the top comment listing out selected examples of what’s being censored in recent times to get a good idea of what kind of contents are being censored.
Or is this just a company that misinterpreted the guidelines and did the AI stuff out of misinformation or paranoia?
People didn’t even think the film would have a cinema release in China because of what you said, gay couple and body horror content. So when it was approved for a wide release, people were in fact quite surprised.
As I have explained to other users here, there are literally only two companies that deal with imported films in China, and the same two groups of people who have had to deal with the censorship bureau over the years for hundreds of foreign films. The idea that these companies don’t know exactly what has to be removed in order to pass the censorship just doesn’t pass the smell test.
The ridiculous part is that they thought it would be a good idea to use AI tool to alter the original content on screen to get around this issue and then show it on cinema. Read the Zhihu thread, usually it’s just cutting a few scenes here and there. This is something new, and ridiculous lol.
Those silly tankies on hexbear aren't so pro-china now!
Wait for the heel turn, last time this happened it ended with pants being pissed in solidarity.
I am way too inebriated for this struggle session so I’m just going to leave at at this:
I’m going to keep financially investing in China and laughing my way to the bank as the West collapses over the next 50 years
A leftist forum that doesn’t have people with strong convictions bitterly arguing over the most trivial perceived differences? Either a non-existent place or a fed corner.
yet every anime they produce is BL. cant explain that.
Were the complaints about the censorship?
Yes, people were like “what’s the point of licensing the film rights and showing it on screen when you’re going to alter the original content?”
A lot of people are also not comfortable with the government using AI to change the content to one that suits them, but I guess that’s the future now.
You are better than this Xiaohongshu. You know this isn't "the government using ai to change the content" that did this. The change is carried out by the company that made the film. The blame lies with them for being incredibly overzealous with their changes, or with whoever gave them the advice to make these changes.
And why do you think they are overzealous with their changes?
Many Chinese shows have their scripts constantly altered and sometimes even have their entire storylines changed by the censors. It is one legitimate grievance many people have with the censorship.
In fact, it’s so common that people are already used to it. What’s different this time is the blatant use of AI to change the content to pass censorship.
Do you seriously think the censors are stupid and don’t know what’s being done to the film?
And why do you think they are overzealous with their changes?
Because the west is absolutely swamped with media claiming all kinds of completely false things about China, the people believe them, and then they act on them if they're in a position of decision making power.
Do you seriously think the censors are stupid and don’t know what’s being done to the film?
The censors don't give a shit what the producers are doing to the film. Their job is to judge the film they're given, not to send it back and say "actually you've gone too far with your changes here and here and here".
Maybe you have a case that they should be given the power to send it back and say "no don't change this". But that's not what their job is currently.
I've heard it described before (maybe it was by you actually, if so then just ignore me) that there's this general sort of dynamic where the companies learn to pre-emptively censor the media before the censors even get to it, because they've learned that it's best to do this to avoid the hassle. The problem is that they tend to be overly conservative and censor more than necessary. Do you think that's accurate?
Correct - it depends on how much time you want to spend wasting going back and forth with the censors.
From what’s written on the social media, the fact is that nobody even expected the film to have a release in China anyway, because of the explicit gay couple content as well as the body horror contents. So it was in fact a surprise that it got a wide release in the first place. Then people found out that certain parts of the film were completely altered lol.
Here's hoping for a course correction and a gay Chinese century. I know I would love to see Chinese films that explore those topics.
Maybe back in the 2010s… a lot have changed since Covid to be honest with you.
There are plenty of LGBT web indie films though. As I mentioned to another user here, I really like 去年烟火 from last year, it’s a short film about a lesbian couple in a small provincial town.
Big China L, ya hate to see it.
For those who are wondering about the caption, it says:
The power of technology, it’s so scary #Together. But the movie is quite decent, it’s more atmospheric to watch horror films in cinema
Capitalism will replace you with AI if they think it will make more sales, absolutely, that is also still an issue in China ofc. Very sad to see, would like to see such actions be followed by a swift response of the people's representatives. Also could you please specify who censored the movie in the title? When you just say a country that means the government mandates this I would assume.