Buzz
The animated film 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' just premiered in China last Friday. However, according to some reviews from local audiences, the film's conclusion has been entirely changed.
Unlike the original version, the release of 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' in the Chinese market does not conclude with the scene where the Vicious 6 and Wild Knuckles fake their deaths to escape the police. Instead, he is arrested, and Gru gradually turns into... a good person.
According to screenshots from Weibo - China's most popular social network, the ending of the film has been censored and replaced with some... still images along with subtitles indicating that Wild Knuckles is arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison while the main character Gru 'returns home and becomes a father to 3 little girls, which is the greatest achievement in the life of the 'most despicable person in the universe'
Moreover, this scene was edited in a hasty manner with a quality akin to a PowerPoint presentation. It's no surprise that this clumsy alteration was quickly criticized by fans of the film, with one person humorously commenting that 'The ending truly got stuck in a parallel universe'.
Some opinions suggest that this edit is aimed at reinforcing the government's three-child policy as the country's birth rate is alarmingly declining.
Renowned blogger Du Sir, known for his film critiques with over 14 million followers on Weibo, dubbed this change as 'excessive'. In the published article, he pondered why only Chinese individuals require 'guidance and attention'. 'Do they believe the audience is so weak and incapable of distinguishing right from wrong to such an extent?', he wrote. Nonetheless, the film still managed to succeed, raking in $3.2 million (75 billion VND) on its opening day in China.
This isn't the first time China's strict censorship policies have led to alterations in the endings of foreign films. Previously, the 1999 version of Fight Club uploaded on the Tencent Video platform had to modify its original conclusion, replacing the scene of the protagonist blowing up several skyscrapers with... a message stating that the authorities quickly found the bomb and successfully rescued everyone.
This editing sparked considerable controversy, with even director David Fincher and author Chuck Palahniuk - the writer of the original 1996 novel - vehemently opposing it. Tencent later restored some segments but still omitted some nude scenes.
