Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChina’s giant Tencent Video has begun playing David Fincher’s classic “Fight Club” with its original dystopian ending now intact.
The move to restore the final scenes comes barely two weeks after it emerged that the ending of the film as it played on Chinese streaming had been changed so that law and order prevail.There has been no explanation of the reversal, nor who was responsible for the previous amendment to the 1999 film.
Online pressure from fans and a chorus of international media commentary highlighting the Chinese government’s penchant for micro-management, may have secured a rare policy reversal.In Fincher’s original film Edward Norton’s narrator character kills off his alter ego Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) before watching buildings burst into flame in apparent confirmation that his plan to destroy modern civilization is being executed.
The version that began playing on China’s largest video streamer stopped before the buildings explode. The final action was instead replaced with an English- and Chinese-language title card explaining that the anarchic plot was foiled by the authorities. “The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding.
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