Chinese studio criticized for using AI to make gay couple straight in body horror film
Hong Kong – An American film distributor criticized a Chinese studio for having used artificial intelligence to make a right gay couple during the distribution of the film from the “Together” body horror in China.
At the beginning of the month, the moviegoers who attended preview projections declared on Chinese social media that one of the two men shown to marry in the film was digitally transferred to a woman, most likely with AI.
Neon, the global film distributor, said on Wednesday that he “does not approve” the “unauthorized” edition of the film of the film distributor based in Chengdu Hishow and that the projections of the modified version must be stopped, Deadline reported.
Written and directed by the Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks, the film tells the story of a couple, played by American actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco, who move to the countryside to save their relationship and meet a mysterious force that brings them closer.
Hishow offered the first prereason projections in 11 Chinese cities from September 12, with the film which should be released on a national scale on September 19.
Many first viewers went to social networks to complain about the change of gender.
A user on Xiaohongshu, or Rednote, a Chinese platform similar to Instagram, described the alteration of the same-sex wedding AI as “scandalous”.
“The version shown in continental China did not delete this scene. Instead, he photoshopped a woman’s face on one of the men,” posted the person. “It seemed quite reasonable. Even the American conservatives would be impressed! ”
The China Film Group Corp. last week, said last week that the broad outing of “Together” had been postponed due to “a change in the film distribution plan”, without offering additional details.
“The new specific date will be announced once it is confirmed,” he said.
NBC News contacted Histow and Neon to comment.
Although imported films are often published by Chinese censors to cut scenes deemed too sensitive or risky, this seems to be among the first cases of technology used to change a scene instead.
One of the greatest subjects of censorship is homosexuality which, despite the decriminalization in China, has been the target of a government repression in recent years, even if surveys show that the public is increasingly supporting LGBTQ people.
In 2021, the Chinese authorities prohibited the “effeminate” behavior of the screens, and the fans complained in 2022 when they noticed the removal of an LGBTQ scenario of the “Friends” TV sitcom, which is very popular in China. At least 10 scenes with gay references have also been abandoned from the Chinese version of the 2018 biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”, on the musician and leader of Queen Freddie Mercury.
The modification of the wedding scene “together” “means that the government has a clear position, and they have a red line,” said Jason Coe, who teaches courses on film and media studies at the University of Hong Kong, in NBC News. “They will seek to apply it, and they will find innovative means to apply it.”
Zeng Hong, deputy professor at the Baptist University Academy of Hong Kong University, has agreed that the apparent use of AI in “Together” is not “in search of LGBTQ rights as well as their representation on Chinese screens”.
This is not the first time that artificial intelligence has been used to modify a film in Asia.
At the beginning of last month, the romantic drama of Bollywood 2013 “Raanjhana” was reissued in India with its end modified by AI in what would be a first world, triggering a debate on the future of narration in the country and beyond.
The original version of the film ends with the death of a Hindu man who has a romance condemned with a Muslim woman. In the new version, he lives, in what said Eros International, in production, was a “creative reinterpretation”.
The director of the film, Aanand L. Rai, who was not aware of the changes, described the decision “deeply disrespectful”.
“To hide the emotional heritage of a film in a synthetic cape without consent, is not a creative act,” wrote Rai in an article on Instagram. “It is an abject betrayal of everything we have built.”
