Scene from David Fincher’s Fight Club
Photo: Splendor Films. All rights reserved.
After being heavily criticized for censorship by the Chinese authorities, “Fight Club” got its original ending back. As early as Monday (February 7), the streaming service Tencent Video began broadcasting the film by star director David Fincher again in full length with the original consumer-critical ending.
Warning: The following lines contain spoilers!
Tencent provided the film’s final scene with a kind of epilogue in which the unnamed protagonist’s plans for an attack can be thwarted by the police.
In the 1999 original, the narrator, played by Edward Norton, kills his imaginary alter ego, played by Brad Pitt, Tyler Durden, and then walks the streets while several high-rise buildings are destroyed by bombs. The interpretation that has prevailed among fans is that the destruction of the high-rise banks will also smash consumer society. In the anarchy there is now room for something new.
Strong state triumphs
In the new Chinese version, the epilogue only stated that the police quickly figured out the plan and arrested all the criminals. In this version, a strong state triumphs over consumer criticism.
Chinese users were outraged by the clumsy censorship of the streaming service. Tencent had not yet responded to the criticism and had not given any reasons for the censorship. The platform did not comment on the reasons for changing the end of the film again, which only fueled the debate on social networks again.
Chinese authorities are notorious for their strict censorship policies. Only a handful of foreign films manage to get released in China. Often this is accompanied by significant changes in the films. A change in the film ending is still relatively rare.
+++This article first appeared on rollingstone.de+++