‘Beauty and the Beast’ escapes the chop, but ‘Moonlight’ may be another story
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GAY rights activists were delighted when China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television released “Beauty and the Beast” without a cut last month, despite fears that the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it “gay moment” might face the chop.
But in a country without a comprehensive film-rating system, the prospects for this year’s Academy Awards best picture winner “Moonlight” aren’t looking so cheery.
The West was all a flutter recently over the so-called “gay moment” in Disney’s live action remake of the classic “Beauty and the Beast” — some heralded it as a step forward for minority representation, while others vowed to boycott Disney for daring to taint the minds of innocent little children.
I wasn’t exactly sure what this “gay moment” entailed before I went to see the film in Shanghai recently, and by the end of the screening I feared the administration may have gone crazy, cutting that three seconds of rainbow-colored gayness from an already bland film.
Many Chinese films and television programs feature hidden indications of gayness which can only be picked up with a keen eye, or with a bit of wishful thinking.
And so it was to be with “Beauty and the Beast,” I thought, because apart from the insinuation that Le Fou was gay for Gaston, I didn’t see any rainbow flags or unicorns.
Then I noticed that People’s Daily was gleefully announcing on Weibo that the film had been released in China without any chops at all, and that they wouldn’t even enact new film laws that could have required “Beauty and the Beast” to attach content warnings for minors.
Wow, I really did blink and miss it!
On further investigation, it turns out that Disney had taken a bit of a hard line when it came to whether or not “Beauty” would succumb to the scissors.
Malaysian censors said the now infamous “gay moment” needed to be cut entirely, but Disney pushed back, saying they wouldn’t release the film there under such conditions. Censors backed down and allowed it to be released intact, albeit with an R13 rating.
Russia faced the same conditions, and there this children’s classic was released with a rating of 16 years of age and above — for a children’s film!
Disney’s magic formula
Some have argued that censors were reluctant to push too far with a film that was pretty much guaranteed to be a cash cow, injecting some much-needed cash into cinemas.
Disney has a magic formula that tends to rake in the dough all around the world.
But for less financially viable films — those without mass appeal — it’s a different story.
Case in point: this year’s Oscar winner “Moonlight,” which tells the story of an African-American gay man who is struggling to come to terms with his life.
This film was the first best picture winner to feature an all-black cast, and the first to feature a central gay theme.
It’s a film that’s important for so many reasons, for a lot of people. But its prospects for release in China are looking dim.
Chinese online streaming outfit iQiyi purchased the online rights to the film soon after it won the award, but the film has yet to be cleared by the state administration, and there hasn’t been an update forthcoming of late.
It was also slated to screen as part of the Beijing International Film Festival, but that is also looking unlikely now.
In a country without a film-rating system, where movies that are released need to be viewable by the entire population, those with content not deemed entirely “family” are often not released at all.
In terms of gay films, that includes Oscar nominee “Carol” and winner “Brokeback Mountain,” which was directed by Chinese-American filmmaker Ang Lee.
So, despite the Chinese government’s willingness to release “Beauty and the Beast” with a three-second “gay moment” intact, films that deal with homosexuality as a central theme just don’t fit within the current model.
Perhaps the problem just comes down to the lack of a comprehensive film-rating system. To be clear, both “Moonlight” and “Brokeback Mountain” were released in the United States with R ratings, meaning that those under the age of 17 needed to be accompanied by an adult because of sexual and violent themes.
If China introduced a rating system, release of such films would be easier to manage. But until then, I’m betting that “Moonlight” won’t brace China.
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