I was watching this video and learned that a Chinese actor in Pirate of the Caribbean had to be removed in the movie’s Chinese version because China thought it was bad to depict a Chinese as a pirate. And also in Mission Impossible 3 they removed a chase scene in the Chinese version because the scene was in Shanghai and there were underwears hung around and China thought that scene made people think Shanghai was a poor place.

This reminds me of a similar incident in my country. There was a movie literally translated to something like “A Thug’s Life in Cho Lon”. It was overall your run-of-the-mill action movie, but it was quite popular because it was made with the care and budget of a Hollywood movie, and also with a plot unlike other local movies at that time. But it was never allowed to be released in theater. One reason for the censorship was that the movie involved too many “bad” people and too few “good” people, and also there was no police to stop the thugs while they were fighting, which could lead people to believe that the country was a dangerous place.

Is there any other work of art you know that is censored for stupid reasons?

Topics: movies, art, books, censorship, stupidity