The first rule of Fight Club in China: You don't see the real ending
China's obsession with censorship is here again. The country's newly available streaming platform, Tencent Video, now features David Fincher’s 1999 cult classic film, Fight Club... but with a twist. The ending of Fight Club was given a whole makeover for Chinese viewers for reasons that have not been made public. The ending, by the way, is one of the reasons the film is ranked #11 on IMDB.
Although I am breaking the first rule of Fight Club right now, fans would remember the closing scene of the original movie to be that of Edward Norton’s character, The Narrator, killing off his imaginary alter ego Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, and then watching multiple buildings explode with Helena Bonham Carter, suggesting that his character’s plan to bring down modern civilisation is taking place.
The Chinese version features The Narrator still killing off Durden, but the exploding building scene is replaced with a black screen and a message. The message reads, "The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding."
The message then says that Tyler, who was a figment of The Narrator’s imagination, was sent to a “lunatic asylum” for psychological treatment and was later discharged. So China.
FIGHT CLUB’s ending for the Chinese release (on Tencent Video) was changed to this and now I’m waiting for someone to fanfic a sequel based on this censored ending. pic.twitter.com/zYB0bY3Dlp
— Courtney Howard @ #Sundance (@Lulamaybelle) January 24, 2022
Other than going against the movie's original anarchist and anti-capitalist message, the new version also ridicules mental health patients by sending a fictional character to a 'lunatic asylum'.
The new ending has sparked massive outrage among many Chinese viewers – many of whom, over the years, had already seen a pirated version of the original film.
Fans of Fight Club are appalled by the makeover.
"This is too outrageous," one viewer commented on Tencent Video. One user wrote on China’s social media platform Weibo, "Fight Club on Tencent Video tells us that they don’t just delete scenes, but add to the plot too."
Another person wrote, "The first rule of Fight Club in China? Don’t mention the original ending. The second rule of Fight Club in China? Change it so the police win."
One of the fans tweeted, "Chinese censors proves that they are not just good at deleting contents by adding a happy ending to Fight Club. I wonder whether this violates the copyright of the movie?"
Chinese censors proves that they are not just good at deleting contents by adding a happy ending to Fight Club. I wonder whether this violates the copyright of the movie? https://t.co/8rjcBpnjLT pic.twitter.com/ExYnTEY6gC
— Henry Gao (@henrysgao) January 23, 2022
It is not yet clear if government censors ordered the new ending of the film or if the producers decided to make changes to cater to the Chinese movie market. Tencent has not commented on the matter till now.
As a fan of the film, if there is anything I can say for sure, it is that Tyler wouldn't have let anyone change the ending to his movie and would have actively made sure everyone saw the execution of his plan. Too bad China got in the way.