5 overseas movies made different by our Malaysian Censorship Board

Recently, Disney did what any self-respecting corporate machine would do and said “No” to our Lembaga Penapis Filem‘s (LPF) demands of cutting out allegedly ‘gay’ parts out from their newest remake, the timeless tale of the “Beauty and the Beast“. While this prompted a collective “Oh no they didn’t!” from Malaysian fans, some of us are already well-aware of how this whole thing will turn out and are already reserving seats in nearby Singapore’s Cathay Cineplex.

Anyways, in this new remake, Gaston’s sidekick, LeFou is the first gay character to be featured in a Disney movie. Well, maybe not gay, but just confused about his sexuality. It is not openly stated in the film, but it is openly stated by the movie’s director Bill Condon in an interview, and that is what prompted Russia to ban the movie for children under 16, with other countries imposing various restrictions regarding the screening of the movie. For Malaysia, we demanded some cuts in the movie, to which Disney wagged their figurative fingers, said no, and pushed the release date to the end of March to give some time for our Censorship Board to make their decision.

So the censoring of films in Malaysia is done by a body under the Ministry of Home Affairs based on their guidelines. How it works is that when a movie gets made, they were sent to these guys for approval. They then watch it in teams of three and send their feedback to the producers, and if everything goes well, the movie gets screened.

Cutting out or adding in any part of a movie might significantly change its ending, but for the sake of upholding our morality, it must be done, even if we were to miss out on what the directors and writers intended. Dare we deface what might have been a deeply emotional, meaningful movie just for the sake of avoiding uncomfortable situations?

Yes. Yes we dare.

1. When Ben-Hur didn’t meet Jesus

The movie: Ben-Hur (2016), a religious-ish story of the prince Judah Ben-Hur, who got exiled because he kena tuduh of treason by his adopted brother. He went on to have a lot of hardships before meeting Morgan Freeman (who did not play God this time) who advised him to settle this whole thing like they do in the streets: having a race. Sometime or another he meets up with Jesus himself, and learns of forgiveness.

The potong: The main theme of the film is forgiveness, which Ben-Hur realised after meeting Jesus, so Jesus is kinda a big deal in the story. But Malaysian audiences didn’t know that at first, because all instances of Jesus was cut out of the film, probably leaving moviegoers scratching their heads while coming out of the theater. Like they literally deleted every scene in the film with Jesus.

Malaysia Why U Do Dis

This time, it’s supposedly not the LPF who did the cutting, as they stated that they did not recall seeing any instances of Jesus in the film submitted to them for review, citing the possibility that maybe the producers did it themselves.

That would be highly unusual, as Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, the producers behind the mini-series ‘The Bible‘ had intended the movie to convey the idea of divine forgiveness. Cutting Jesus out of the equation won’t help in this case.

Anyways, it was theorized that the reason Jesus was cut out was because Malaysia is a Sunni Muslim country, where graphic depictions of any of the Prophets are strictly forbidden. But this move left a lot of dissatisfied moviegoers in its wake, as it was adapted from a novel titled “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ“, so it left a lot of gaping plot holes. Imagine the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but with every instance of the Prisoner of Azkaban cut out, and you get the idea of how weird the whole thing is.

 

2. When Rajinikanth had to surrender to the police

The movie: Kabali (2016), a story about an aging gangster who got out of jail and defended his family and business from enemies. Oh, and it’s shot in Malaysia, so it’s a pretty big deal.

The potong: There were the standard cuts for violence and some nasty words, particularly the ‘k’ word, but the last straw that pushed the issue to international levels is in the ending. At the end of the movie, we provided closure to the audience. The real ending was kinda ambiguous, with the screen fading to black after the sound of a gunshot. The audience will never know for sure, unless they’re watching the Malaysian version of Kabali, where after the screen fades to black, a line of text shows up on the screen that said, “Finally Kabali surrendered to the police.”

Malaysia Why U Do Dis:

To be fair, the edit was done after discussion with and the consent of the producer himself, Mr. Kalaipuli S. Thanu. And the gory parts and the swearing is so that the movie can be seen by more people since it’s rated PG13. But why the alternate ending? The head of the LPF answers:

“Normally under our guidelines, there must be some kind of element of retribution in the movie. Especially if the characters shown in the movies are involved in crime, then there must be some kind of comeuppance for that. So, we asked the producer to put in a caption … This was to send a message that the law cannot be taken into your own hands,” – LPF chairman Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid told Malay Mail Online

So to sum it up, you have to teach these Malaysians that crime doesn’t pay lah. You cannot go around beating up the bad guys without being charged for battery and assault. Or something like that.

 

3. Young & Dangerous IV had an undercover cop

The movie: Every Chinese guy born in the 90s remembers this series. But maybe you don’t.  Young and Dangerous 4 (1997), is a movie about Hong Kong triad, Hung Hing, directed by Andrew Lau.  Basically it’s a story about the rivalry between two of the late leader’s right hand men, Chan Ho Nam and Chicken. Conflict escalates, but (spoiler alert) in the end the two rules the triad equally, and the triad prospers.

The potong: In a version of the DVD distributed in Malaysia, there is an additional scene where Chan Ho Nam is actually shown to be an undercover cop, and he turns in his triad members to the police. So if you watched the Malaysian version, the triad did not prosper, Chan Ho Nam is a traitor and everybody goes to jail.

Malaysia Why U Do Dis

There was not much coverage on the matter on the Internet, and it seems like a pretty obscure issue (probably cos everyone was on dial-up back then). But the reason behind this stark contrast in endings is the same as for Kabali: crime doesn’t pay. In fact, if you look closely at the actor playing Chicken in the edited scene, it’s not the same actor as in the movie, which probably means that the scene was added as an afterthought.

 

4. There’s no such thing as “Hellboy”

The movie: Hellboy (2004) is a movie based loosely on the graphic novel Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. The story revolves around a demonic beast turned into a superhero, and his team goes around the world saving people from paranormal stuff.

The potong: This time, apart from the standard violence and cursing, the movie did not kena potong in a big way. But the movie’s name did. To “Super Sapiens”.

Malaysia Why U Do Dis?

It’s a weird thing, and kinda obscure since there were not many online sources talking about it. But the story goes that at first the movie was rejected until it changed its title to “Super Sapiens“, which eventually allows it to be screened in Malaysia. Which is weird, because the movie is literally about a demon with a conscience.

A year before that, the movie Daredevil (2003) was banned because of the title. The censorship board had stated the reason as something along the lines of not wanting youngsters to hero-worship someone with a devil-sounding name, which is still weird since the hero had nothing demonic about him, as opposed to Hellboy Super Sapien.

 

5. Singapore Gaga was banned over the same reason as Beauty and the Beast

The movie: Singapore Gaga (2015) is a Singaporean movie by a highly acclaimed Singaporean filmmaker Tan Pin Pin, and it showcases the charms of the Singaporean community. It is the first documentary in Singapore to be featured in cinemas, and is sold-out for seven straight weeks at the Arts House, which is more amazing than it sounds.

The ban: During the 55-minute movie of short snippets of Singaporean culture, there was a short scene featuring ventriloquist Victor Khoo. In this scene Victor and his dummy exchanged dialogue, where Victor asked his dummy to translate the phrase “Tonight, I will meet my friends” to Malay. The dummy said, in Malay, “Tonight, I will meet animals (binatang)“. This word was asked to be cut out, to which Tan refused, causing the banhammer to fall on the movie in Malaysia.

Malaysia Why U Do Dis

1. The puppet assumed the friends were animals.
2. The puppet assumed it would be better to meet animals than friends.
3. Malaysians may interpret this joke as an insult to the Malay language because the words friends and animals are two words that are very different from how they are spoken and the difference in meanings.

Eh? Sounds familiar… Will we ever get to see Beauty and the Beast?

Contrary to the previous four entries, Singapore Gaga situation is what happens when movie makers refused to bow down to what they think is wrong, to censor what they set out to say by making their art in the first place. While some might argue that censoring is a necessary evil, others might call the Censorship Act responsible as a bad law for criminalizing freedom of expression.

On the matter at hand, will Malaysia Disney fans ever get to watch this Beauty and the Beast remake on the silver screen, or will it go the way of Singapore Gaga? And why are some films that seemed questionable pass the censors before? As we have covered before, even if a movie didn’t make it past the censors the first time, they can appeal for the censors to review it again after editing. For companies that can afford repeated editing and appealing, normally you’d still be able to see their (heavily censored) movie sometime or later.

Other than the capacity to make cuts and appeals, movies that show great potential are also more likely to pass the censors with little edits, albeit with a stricter regulation such as an 18+ rating. However, in the case of Beauty and the Beast, with much controversy and reputations hanging on the line, and this response:

“The way he (LeBouf [sic]) dances is… gay and the dialogue and the lyrics of the song are too. In the same scene he also lifts up his shirt and shows a love bite on his tummy… Even I wanted to bring my grandchildren to watch it. But there are rules. We don’t support LGBT.” – Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid, Head of the Malaysian Censorship Board in a statement to AFP.

…we can probably go ahead and book those movie tickets in Singapore now.