Fight Club is now streaming in China with its original ending intact. Recently, the film had made headlines when it was reported that a Chinese cut of the film had heavily censored the ending. Rather than featuring the original movie’s climax with buildings exploding as Tyler Durden carries out his master plan, China’s version censored the film so the cops would win. The new ending explained this with a title card that was abruptly shown to viewers before the credit rolled.
“Through the clue provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding. After the trial, Tyler was sent to lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012," the title card stated.
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Now, The Hollywood Reporter has reported that the censored Chinese cut of Fight Club has had its original ending restored. The streaming service that hosted the new cut, Tencent Video, has not provided an official comment, though the bizarre ending has since been replaced with the original ending. This is an extremely rare development as Chinese censors reversing course due to complaints almost never happen. However, while the original ending is now back, there’s still about a minute of Fight Club that’s missing from the cut, but that mostly consists of intimate scenes involving Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter.
There have been other incidents in China with major Hollywood movies getting censored in order to be screened. One big example would be the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody which starred Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. The film was only screened in China after all references to Mercury’s homosexuality were removed. Similarly, WarnerMedia’s Friends: The Reunion was chopped up in China to have its cameo featuring Lady Gaga removed. This followed Gaga sparking backlash in China after meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2016.
The Original Writer of Fight Club Praised the New Ending
20th Century Fox
Author Chuck Palahniuk, who penned the original Fight Club novel, had some fun with the Chinese ending. He took to Twitter to comment on the story, also using the occasion to post an image of the autograph he was given by late Fight Club actor Meat Loaf. Clearly amused by the situation, Palahniuk says, “Have You Seen This Sh*t? This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China!”
In this case, it seems likely that Tencent Video censored the video of their own volition without a specific order from the Chinese government to do so. The backlash over the censorship, along with the complaints that it made the movie no longer make sense with the new ending, perhaps convinced the streamer to go back to the original ending. Whatever the case may be, chances are we haven’t heard the last of the overseas censorship of major American films.
