19 Jun 2017

Michael Fassbender’s Gay Kiss Cut in China

China’s notorious film censors have cut a gay kiss from hollywood blockbuster ‘Alien: Covenant’

A kiss between Michael Fassbender and himself in ‘Alien: Covenant’ was among six minutes of the movie cut by state censors ahead of its release in China at the weekend.

The absence of the kiss, taking place late in the film between the two cyborgs Walter and David which are both played by Fassbender, was described as jarring by the weekend’s moviegoers.

"For the other missing parts, you don't notice or know when it happens, but you can really feel something is missing where the gay kiss is supposed to be," 26-year-old Yu from Shanghai told The Hollywood Reporter.

China’s infamous State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television has had an uneasy relationship with LGBT content in movies. Multiple Oscar-winner ‘Brokeback Mountain’ was denied a release though the "gay moment" in Disney's live-action ‘Beauty and the Beast,’  banned in Malaysia, was allowed to run uncensored in cinemas earlier this year.

Watch Michael Fassbender on the kiss in question below:


China