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China Censors Fight Club’s Iconic Ending with Authoritarian Spin

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Kowtow Chronicles

China Censors Fight Club’s Iconic Ending with Authoritarian Spin

Our first entry in a rolling chronicle of businesses, filmmakers, athletes, and institutions in liberal societies that bow to censorship, or even preemptively self-censor, for illiberal authorities.

Pluribus
Jan 26, 2022
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China Censors Fight Club’s Iconic Ending with Authoritarian Spin

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On the new Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video, censors have cut short the iconic ending of the 1999 David Fincher film so that the authorities—and authority—save the day.

Twitter avatar for @Lulamaybelle
Courtney Howard @ #Sundance @Lulamaybelle
FIGHT CLUB’s ending for the Chinese release (on Tencent Video) was changed to this and now I’m waiting for someone to fanfic a sequel based on this censored ending.
Image
10:08 PM ∙ Jan 24, 2022
1,330Likes526Retweets

In the theatrical cut Fight Club (spoiler alert, two decades on) the anarchist Tyler Durden and his love interest watch the demolition of several skyscrapers, engineered by Durden’s anarchist terror group, before the credits abruptly roll. In the People’s Republic, there’s apparently no fireworks. Instead the film cuts out before the detonation and an ending caption reads:

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

Dr. How Wee Ng, a professor of Chinese film and media at the University of Westminster, told The Guardian, “The new Chinese version of Fight Club puts power back into the hands of the police and implies an ideal closure in line with the Chinese state discourse in which the symbiotic relationship between the police and the state is a given.”

The Guardian added, “It is not clear whether government censors had ordered the alternative ending or if the original movie’s producers made the changes on their own. Tencent did not comment on the matter.”

Apparently, nudity is also a big concern:

Twitter avatar for @jerryasleep
Jerry Chen🎞❤️ @jerryasleep
When Shape of water came out they photoshopped bathing suits onto naked bodies,really funny out of all the weird shit in that film that was the one they were focusing on censoring
Image
Twitter avatar for @DiscussingFilm
DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm
The ending of ‘FIGHT CLUB’ has been changed in China, with the ending being replaced with text on the screen saying: “The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding.” (Source: https://t.co/qBKdE9TDb9) https://t.co/xFNwtFVnnt
5:33 PM ∙ Jan 25, 2022
68Likes5Retweets
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China Censors Fight Club’s Iconic Ending with Authoritarian Spin

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