Usually, they only censor the explicit content. But this is the first time that AI tools were used to directly alter the content of the original film.
By the way, the film has been withdrawn from a wide release in China after receiving too many complaints.
It’s weird that some of the most successful media coming out of China is extremely gay coded, like Ne Zha 2 earlier this year, but they’re still trying to censor gay stuff.
A lot of Chinese media are gay coded but you cannot be explicit.
There are a lot of cool web series with LGBT content though. As long as you’re not going for cinematic/television release you don’t have to go through censorship.
I really like the Mo Dao Zu Shi donghua which is very gay coded, but I hear the original webnovel source material has the leads get full on gay married.
The web series I was talking about are more like indie films (usually short films).
I really like 去年烟火 from last year. It’s a short film about a lesbian couple in a small provincial town.
That was very cute thank you
As somewhat of a BL gourmand, I was under the impression that they must’ve been relaxing the censorship around LGBT content lately, but I guess maybe they get around it by not releasing their shows on Chinese platforms? Either way, some of the most popular BLs this year have been Chinese, including the world’s first live-action Omegaverse BL (and yes, the boys do get pregnant!).
Web series usually don’t go through censorship, otherwise the poor staff in the department would be completely overwhelmed lol. It’s mostly release on movie theaters and public television channels that require the proper license and censorship approval.
The world’s first live action Omegaverse BL was Star Trek The Original Series Season 2, Episode 1 “Amok Time.” Unfortunately neither boy got pregnant in that one.