Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster has finally hit the screens in China, five weeks after it was first released in the United States and several other countries.
Back in July, it was first confirmed that the movie would be released in Chinese mainland theaters on August 30, causing a buzz.
The film centers on the efforts leading up to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, highlighting the Manhattan Project led by J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists. Over the course of several years, they dedicated themselves to the development and design of the atomic bomb. After bombings on August 6 and 9, 1945, Japan surrendered on August 15, marking the end of WWII and the Second Sino-Japanese War, the latter of which had merged into World War II in 1941.
It now turns out that the movie could not have come at a ‘better’ time to boost ticket sales in the mainland, as anti-Japanese sentiments have flared in mainland China since last week, when Japan formally announced its decision to discharge Fukushima wastewater into the ocean. Within this context, the history of war often comes up in online discussions.
Back in July, SCMP’s Fran Lu already noted how China was likely to follow the example of India and the Middle East in dealing with the nude scenes, adding a computer-generated black dress on topless Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh, in a sex scene.
On Wednesday, Chinese moviegoers soon posted about how Pugh was indeed covered by a ‘little black dress.’ They also suggested that the Chinese censored version was done better than the Indian one. “I can even see some texture to it, making it look real,” some Weibo commenters noted.
“Not bad at all,” others remarked.
Chinese censorship of nudity is known for being quite blatant. An infamous illustration is the way Fan Bingbing’s cleavage in The Empress of China was edited out, only showing tightly-cropped shots that depicted only the actresses’ heads and shoulders.
Last year, a live-streamed Coachella concert caused some hilarity (and frustration) among Chinese viewers when censors had a hard time catching up with covering nudity during a Megan Thee Stallion performance (see video below).
Coachella is also being livestreamed via WeChat. Apparently, this performance not only made censors sweat, everyone was also joking that they're singing a song about Shanghai Puxi District. #MeganTheeStallion #Shanghailockdown pic.twitter.com/2ltSqzFC9c
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) April 17, 2022
The computer-generated little black dress diverges from China’s typical, less nuanced approach to editing and cutting.
”The little black dress should be nominated for the Golden Rooster Awards for Best Visual Effects,” another moviegoer joked (the Golden Rooster Awards are film awards given in mainland China).
“Thumbs up for the little black dress,” other Weibo users wrote after seeing the movie.
By Manya Koetse & Zilan Qian
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