What’s small, yellow, loves bananas and promotes the rule of law? A Minion, at least according to an edited version of the latest animated film featuring supervillain Gru and his army of tiny sidekicks being screened in China. The fifth instalment of the lucrative Despicable Me franchise, Minions: The Rise of Gru, premiered in China this month, several weeks after the film opened in US cinemas.
But while the international version of the kung fu-filled family-friendly romp set in 1970s San Francisco tells the story of how the dastardly Gru cut his teeth as a tween criminal, filmgoers in China are treated to an alternative ending in which the good guys win.
A series of subtitled still images inserted into the credits sequence on mainland Chinese screens reassures audiences that police catch Gru’s law-breaking mentor Wild Knuckles and lock him up for 20 years after a failed heist.
Photo: Reuters
International viewers simply see Knuckles give police the slip by faking his death earlier in the film’s concluding scenes, but in the Chinese version he puts his con artist skills to positive use in prison, where he follows his “love of acting” and sets up a theatrical troupe.
As for Gru, he “eventually became one of the good guys,” devoted to raising his family, the Chinese ending says.
It is not the first time a popular foreign film has been altered for cinemas in China, where the entertainment industry faces some of the world’s strictest censorship rules and is tasked with promoting “healthy” values.
David Fincher’s 1999 cult classic Fight Club starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton was given similar treatment when Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video in January uploaded a version where police shut down the protagonist’s plan to bring down modern civilization.
And the highly anticipated return of US sitcom Friends to Chinese streaming platforms in February prompted fury among fans after viewers noticed a LGBTQ plotline was cut.
It is unclear if the Minions ending was altered due to censors’ demands or if producers considered it a more palatable conclusion for the Chinese market.
Universal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Social media reaction to the Chinese Minions ending was mixed, with one person on the Twitter-like Weibo social media platform saying they had gone to the cinema specifically to see the new ending but was disappointed that it was “just subtitles.”
Other fans were upset by the discontinuity between young Gru’s virtuous transformation in the new film, a prequel, and his continued villainous behavior in the other films, set in the present day.
“We can only say that the Gru of the main films lives in another parallel Minion universe,” one Weibo user complained.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
RSS