HONG KONG — A U.S. film distributor has criticized a Chinese studio for reportedly using artificial intelligence to make a gay couple straight when distributing the body horror film “Together” in China.
Early this month, moviegoers who attended preview screenings said on Chinese social media that one of two men shown getting married in the film was digitally altered into a woman, most likely with AI.
Neon, the film’s global distributor, said Wednesday that it “does not approve of” the “unauthorized” edit of the film by Chengdu-based film distributor Hishow and that screenings of the altered version must be stopped, Deadline reported.
Written and directed by Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks, the movie 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 encounter a mysterious force that draws them closer.
Hishow offered the first pre-release screenings in 11 Chinese cities starting Sept. 12, with the movie scheduled to be released nationwide on Sept. 19.
Many early viewers took to social media to complain about the gender change.
One user on Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, a Chinese platform similar to Instagram, described the AI alteration of the same-sex wedding as “outrageous.”
“The version shown in mainland China didn’t delete this scene. Instead, it photoshopped a woman’s face over one of the men,” the person posted. “It looked quite reasonable. Even the American conservatives would be impressed!”
The state-owned China Film Group Corporation said last week that the wide release of “Together” had been postponed due to “a change in the film’s distribution plan,” without offering further details.
“The specific new date will be announced once it is confirmed,” it said.
NBC News has reached out to Hishow and Neon for comment.
Though imported films are often edited by Chinese censors to cut scenes deemed too sensitive or risqué, this appears to be among the first instances of technology being used to change a scene instead.
One of the biggest subjects of censorship is homosexuality, which despite being decriminalized in China has been the target of a government crackdown in recent years, even though surveys shows the public is increasingly supportive of LGBTQ people.
In 2021, Chinese authorities banned “effeminate” behavior from screens, and fans complained in 2022 when they noticed the removal of an LGBTQ storyline from the TV sitcom “Friends,” which is highly popular in China. At least 10 scenes with gay references were also dropped from the Chinese version of the 2018 biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” about the rock musician and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
The alteration of the “Together” wedding scene “signifies that the government has a clear stance, and they have a red line,” Jason Coe, who teaches courses on film and media studies at the University of Hong Kong, told NBC News. “They will look to enforce it, and they will find innovative ways to enforce it.”
Zeng Hong, an assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University’s Academy of Film, agreed that the apparent use of AI in “Together” is not “looking promising for LGBTQ rights as well as their representation on Chinese screens.”
This isn’t the first time that artificial intelligence has been used to alter a film in Asia.
Early last month, the 2013 hit Bollywood romantic drama “Raanjhanaa” was re-released in India with its ending altered by AI in what is believed to be a world first, setting off a debate about the future of storytelling in the country and beyond.
The original version of the film ends with the death of a Hindu man who has a doomed romance with a Muslim woman. In the new version he lives, in what production house Eros International said was a “creative reinterpretation.”
The film’s director, Aanand L. Rai, who was unaware of the changes, called the decision “deeply disrespectful.”
“To cloak a film’s emotional legacy in a synthetic cape without consent, is not a creative act,” Rai wrote in a post on Instagram. “It’s an abject betrayal of everything we built.”
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