{"id":303728,"date":"2017-03-22T06:30:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T06:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=303728"},"modified":"2017-03-22T06:30:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T06:30:11","slug":"beauty-and-the-beast-malaysia-to-show-uncut-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=303728","title":{"rendered":"Beauty and the Beast: Malaysia &#8216;to show uncut version&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Beauty and the Beast will be released in Malaysia without any cuts, Disney says, days after it rejected censors&#8217; demands for a gay scene to be removed.<\/p>\n<p>The blockbuster would be released on 30 March with a PG13 rating, Disney said.<\/p>\n<p>Two major cinema chains have confirmed the new date, two weeks after the postponed opening on 16 March.<\/p>\n<p>The film has offended social conservatives for making LeFou, sidekick to villain Gaston, the first openly gay character in a Disney film.<\/p>\n<p>Homosexual activity is illegal in Malaysia under both secular and religious laws. It is punishable by a prison sentence or corporal punishment.<\/p>\n<p>Gay characters can be shown in films, but only if they are portrayed negatively or repent.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/18065\/production\/_95250489_bb_lefou_disney.jpg\" alt=\"Luke Evans and Josh Gad in Beauty and the Beast\" width=\"681\" height=\"383\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>The film, starring Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, has taken more than $350m (\u00a3282m) around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Director Bill Condon says Le Fou &#8220;is confused about his sexuality&#8221; and that the film shows a brief &#8220;gay moment&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The head of Malaysia&#8217;s Film Censorship Board, Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid, told the Associated Press on 15 March that the scene in question was &#8220;inappropriate because many children will be watching this movie&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The board asked for cuts &#8211; something Disney rejected. Local distributors then asked the board to review the decision to block the film.<\/p>\n<p>The move had also sparked ire on social media and the tourism minister, Seri Nazri Aziz, had said banning the film was &#8220;ridiculous&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>There was no immediate comment from the board on the apparent reversal.<\/p>\n<p>Beauty and the Beast has also raised hackles elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>In neighbouring Singapore, where sex between men is technically illegal, the Anglican Church has issued a warning to parents over the film. In Russia, it has been given a 16+ rating and, most recently, it has also been pulled from Kuwaiti cinemas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beauty and the Beast will be released in Malaysia without any cuts, Disney says, days after it rejected censors&#8217; demands for a gay scene to be removed. The blockbuster would be released on 30 March with a PG13 rating, Disney said. Two major cinema chains have confirmed the new date, two weeks after the postponed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[5333,3,3639],"class_list":["post-303728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-showbiz","tag-beauty-and-the-beast","tag-ghana-news","tag-showbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}