China will publish the "Bohemian Rhapsody" but the speech of the censor Rami Malek – Variety



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Fox's Bohemian Rhapsody, which has just won four Oscars, will be shown in China, the company announced on social media on Wednesday, a surprising development given the country's restrictions on LGBT content.

The Freddie Mercury biopic has been approved for limited release by the Chinese National Arthouse Theaters Alliance. The release date is indicated on March 22 at the Douban film review site.

Fans rejoiced online for the unexpected opportunity to see the film in theaters. "Is it real life, is it just a fantasy?" Joked an amazed Weibo user.

It is still unclear whether the film will be broadcast without censorship. The comments of the most popular users reported by Fox in the news about Weibo revealed that homosexual content would be cut. "Could you cut nothing, please?" Asked one with rows of emojis with supplicating eyes. "The suspense! It is already very unexpected that the film enters the scene – the chances of cuts are very large," wrote another.

The news comes just when one of only two sites that broadcast live Oscars in China is criticized for the acceptance speech of the best actor of the star of censorship Rami Malek. "Listen, we shot a film about a homosexual, an immigrant, who lived his life without any excuse, and the fact that I'm celebrating him with his story here tonight is proof that we yearn for such stories," Malek I said.

Mango TV, one of the most popular channels in China, has substituted the words "special group" for "gay man" in its translated subtitles. The company belongs to the Chinese public channel Hunan TV.

A screen shot of the subtitled moment made the rounds online, anointed angrily by detractors. "What are they afraid of?", Asked one of them, while another person wrote: "Can we ask the Oscars to cancel the broadcast rights? from China? Let us write a complaint letter or something. "

Last year, Mango TV was criticized for censoring the gay content of its Eurovision song contest by refusing to broadcast an Irish video clip in which male dancers held hands and wiped out the rainbow flags. -sky. The European Broadcasting Union finally banned him from broadcasting the program.


CREDIT: Weibo

China does not have a clear and comprehensive policy on homosexual content, but this one is considered sensitive and is regularly but regularly removed from different media. Gay themes are specifically banned from appearing on TV and, since 2017, in streaming content online.

Last year, the Beijing International Film Festival scheduled the screening of the gay love story and the story of the teenage age "Call Me by Your Name" before canceling it. And in 2016, the viral online drama "Go Princess Go" by LeTV, which described bisexuality and issues of sexual identity, was brutally removed from the Web.

Last year, China dramatically stepped up its monitoring of the Web, removing "vulgar" content from social media and shutting down "illegal" websites. The crackdown has made streaming platforms extremely cautious. Last month, the iQiyi streaming platform sharply criticized the images of men wearing earrings by erasing their ear lobes, which the public found ridiculous.

In recent years, there have been examples of increasing tolerance by the public and authorities for LGBT issues.

The Chinese authorities have authorized the live action 2017 of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to unfold without cuts, despite a controversial "gay moment" between LeFou and Gaston, which almost banned the film in Russia and in Malaysia. The decision was proudly tweeted by the spokesman of the Communist Party, People's Daily.

In 2018, director Wang Chao's film "Looking for Rohmer" was billed as the first gay-themed film to be approved by censorship, although many viewers were disappointed by the film, which subtly describes could have missed it.

Last year, when Weibo announced the ban on LGBT content on its platform as part of a campaign against violent and pornographic content, it was forced to reverse its position after a intense popular reaction.

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