China’s product censorships already took a toll on many movies, especially the Hollywood ones.
Back in 2019, multiple scenes from Bohemian Rhapsody referencing Queen’s frontman Freddie Mercury’s sexuality–were dumped in the Chinese release.
But it seems just dropping some scenes wasn’t enough for David Fincher’s 1999 classic Fight Club.
China’s Communist Party seems determined to nip Fincher’s anarchist and anti-capitalist messages in the bud. And they opted to alter the ending and add some creativity to it.
For those who don’t remember the original ending is somewhat iconic.
They censored this? pic.twitter.com/jveqRN78UQ
— Floyd Reynolds (@Floyds_Archives) January 24, 2022
But what many of the hard core Fight Club fans might not know is that the book upon which the 1999 flick was based ends differently. Press caught up with Fight Club Author Chuck Palahniuk recently and asked him how he felt about his story getting censored and he gave a very surprising response.
“The irony is that the way the Chinese have changed it, they aligned the ending almost exactly with the ending of the book, as opposed to Fincher’s ending, which was the more spectacular visual ending,” Palahniuk told TMZ. “So in a way, the Chinese brought the ending back to the book a little bit.”
But Palahniuk is playing coy with the response. The book actually ends with the narrator shooting himself in the head. From there he awakens in a mental hospital – but he believes he’s in Heaven – that is until he’s approached by hospital employees and realizes he’s in a metaphorical hell. The Employees that approached him reveal themselves to be Project Mayhem members. They tell him the plans still continue and they’re waiting for Tyler to return.
“What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S.,” Palahniuk said. “The Texas prison system refuses to carry my books in its libraries. A lot of public schools and most private schools refuse to carry my books. But it’s only an issue once China changes the end of a movie. I’ve been putting up with book banning for a long time.”
It’s also worth noting that Palahniuk’s biggest claim to fame is Fight Club – however he was robbed of the proceeds from the project. Several years ago Palahniuk revealed his accountant Darin Webb had been defrauding the literary agency where he worked and several prominent authors.
An accountant at his literary agency had been arrested for embezzling $3.4m (£2.5m) from the company.