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There is Something with the Censorship...

Censorship
picture taken from movieretrospect.blogspot.com

This is the "next post" I meant in my review on "Killer Joe". So here's the story. Last Thursday I finally got a day-off (since I got no classes in that day), so I went to the cinemas. Actually there's no movies I eagerly wanted to see, but I just felt like I wanna go watching two movies in that day. Yes, two movies. I picked "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" and "Killer Joe". I checked the showtimes via internet, and because I feel it's kinda boring to watch two movies in the same cinema, so I went to two different cinemas to watch these two movies. Haha.

I went to the first cinema to watch "Hansel & Gretel" at about 1 pm. As you have known (or previously read in my review on that movie), "Hansel & Gretel" is unexpectedly bloody and gory. I didn't expect a head smashed till pieces, or exploding human body, or cutting off someone's neck using a scope, etc. I just didn't know if the on-screen violence will be that... over-shown. The show ended, I was a little bit entertained. I walked to the second cinema (these two cinemas are actually located in two malls, which are close to each other) to watch "Killer Joe", because the time gap between "Hansel & Gretel" and "Killer Joe" was just about 30 minutes. I arrived in the second cinema in, like, 5 minutes (because the two were real close) and, as I have expected before, the queue line was nearly vacant (because it's Thursday!).


"Killer Joe" was, I guess, the least popular flick showing in that cinema and there's only a person buying the ticket for the show before me. Oh, well, if you wanna know why I wanted to watch this unpopular flick, I will tell you. See, I nearly never go watching a movie in cinema without checking any reviews about it. Well, of course I don't want to spend my money and time watching an uninteresting movie, right? "Killer Joe" is actually a good movie, some reviews said. Okay, it is said that it was previously rated NC-17, and there will be many pornographic scenes and on-screen violence, and... that's it. Haha, I was easily intrigued. I have a good expectation to this flick.

So, the show was on. There were like seven other viewers in the theater. And the movie started.

I started to point out some rough transition between scenes. And I was saying to myself, "This is just ridiculous".

Mostly, the pornographic scenes were cut. There's no lower-part display of nude woman, there's no the amazing "fried chicken" scenes, and there's nothing. Maybe these adult scenes were far too much? Yet, some violence were still shown. Look, of course I don't want to watch porn there (haha), but the thing is, because of this censors, the whole movie became so annoying. Moreover, "Killer Joe" is a black-comedy, so without those inappropriate things, it's just lost its track.

I just don't understand. In "Hansel & Gretel", there's a glimpse of shot of the upper part of nude woman. There's a kind of pervert scenes, too. And the violence was just overload. So what happened to "Killer Joe"? Okay, I might understand about why they cut the adult scenes, but the violence? I don't know. If you had spare-time, go see these two movies and you'll understand what I mean. I still see "Killer Joe" as an interesting movie, but... well, there's a big thing missing from it.

I am not very much disappointed, but... well, I guess I just wanna share my experience. Have you experienced things like this before? Or, any information about how the censorship works? Any thoughts about this?



Akbar Saputra

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2 comments:

  1. Killer Joe is playing in our cinemas? Blitz ya? Never really understand the clear guideline they use to censor a film here. And just like you said, sometimes it's uneven(?). Or maybe they refer to the ratings given from the distributor? But good thing they didn't have too much problem with The Raid. But I remember watching Watchmen a few years ago and in one scene they didn't cut the part where Mr. Manhattan's lower body was shown. Awkwaaaard. IMO, lebih baik pemerintah kita gak usah banyak fokus di sensor, tapi pengecekan rating sama umur penonton yang tegas di bioskop kayak di US.

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    1. Yap, akhirnya tersebut juga nama bioskop itu, haha. Lo udah nonton "Killer Joe"? Gw liat reviewnya di Movienthusiast, di situ dijelaskan tentang scene-scene berbau adult (yg emang mungkin udah kelewat batas) di film ini. Mungkin sensor lebih diterapkan ke urusan pornografi yg berlebihan, sehingga kalo ada sekadar 1-2 shot masih dimaafkan? Entahlah. Setuju, lebih bagus kalo umur penonton yg dijadikan patokan alih-alih menyensor filmnya. Tapi berarti itu nyerahin tanggung jawab ke masing-masing bioskop, dan rasanya agak sulit.

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