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By the way, the film has been withdrawn from a wide release in China after receiving too many complaints.
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.
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.
Apologies, because I can’t translate the page right now, but does that thread have any links to actual sources? As in, I’m curious to see the actual regulations that apply to this film. No offense, but it’s a little difficult to tell what’s real and what’s rumor from forum posts alone.
I used machine translation for you. Haven’t watched all of the shows mentioned, but a cursory glance seems accurate.
spoiler
The good news is that not a single terrifying scene from “Together” was cut, but AI face swapping is a uniquely Chinese horror that Western audiences can’t fully grasp.
Let’s examine other examples. During its mainland China release, Bohemian Rhapsody had all scenes hinting at Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s homosexuality edited out or muted.
In Game of Thrones Season 5, a scene depicting a male prostitute being stabbed to death for homosexuality was removed. Season 8 saw Yara’s one-second kiss with Daenerys in Dorne deleted.
In The Two Cities 2, all lesbian subplots involving the female lead (a policewoman) were removed.
After the comic adaptation of Little Green and Little Blue became an animated series, all same-sex content was removed. (Thanks to @Wu Ming for the comment supplement)
In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, all emotional lines between Dumbledore and Grindelwald—such as “I fell in love with you”—were deleted, retaining only vague expressions like “We are brothers.”
After Friends launched on streaming platforms in 2022, all dialogue implying Carol’s lesbianism was edited out.
In The Shape of Water, content depicting Giles facing workplace discrimination due to his sexuality was cut.
In Four-Wheel Brothers, Hijikata Rei—a boy who paints his nails and wears lipstick—was altered to a girl in mainland China.
In Alien: Covenant, a kiss between two male androids was cut.
In Soul, the romantic tension between the boss and scientist was altered to “brotherly love” (thanks to @博哥逍遥游 for the comment).
Call Me by Your Name was scheduled for the 2018 Beijing Film Festival but was pulled due to “technical reasons.”
Cloud Atlas was cut by 37 minutes, including same-sex kissing scenes.
Carol (limited release) had all same-sex intimate scenes removed.
In Love, Simon (Shanghai Film Festival screening), the protagonist’s coming-out conversation with his mother and the bar scene were both cut.
TV series like “Queer as Folk,” independently uploaded by netizens to platforms like Bilibili and Youku, were entirely removed despite never being officially released in mainland China.
After “Everything Everywhere All at Once” won an Oscar, all mainland plot summaries replaced references to the protagonist’s gay daughter with “daughter with Westernized lifestyle.”
During the 2019 Oscars rebroadcast, Chinese platforms replaced the subtitle “a gay man” in Malek’s acceptance speech with “special group.”
The Eurovision Song Contest had its broadcast rights revoked by the EBU from Mango TV (2018) for censoring “rainbow flags/same-sex content.”
Previously, it was just censorship and muting. Now, AI face swapping has emerged—it must be said, technology has advanced.
Thanks for this!!
The post right above the one replied to has a link to the minutes of a meeting on the regulations.
You mean what I posted?
Yeah! Wait, what?