Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
More than two decades after its release, "Fight Club" has been given a very different ending in China -- and this time, the authorities win.
Chinese fans of David Fincher's cult classic were enraged over the weekend when they noticed a version of the movie available on popular Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video completely removes its iconic ending.
The finale of "Fight Club" shocked audiences when the film hit theatres in 1999. In a massive twist, the narrator, played by Edward Norton, realizes that Brad Pitt's slick-talking Tyler Durden character is his imaginary alter ego, and kills him off.
In the final scene, the narrator stands with his girlfriend, played by Helena Bonham Carter, as they watch explosives blow up a cluster of skyscrapers -- all part of what was originally presented to the audience as Durden's plan to destroy consumerism by erasing bank and debt records.
That amount of anarchy -- and the government's inability to stop it -- doesn't appear to have passed muster with China's notoriously strict censorship rules, though.
In the version available on Tencent Video, which CNN Business was able to view on the platform, the entire scene featuring the explosions has been cut out. Instead, it has been replaced with a caption explaining to audiences that the authorities arrived just in time to save the day.
"Through the clue provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding," the caption reads. "After the trial, Tyler was sent to [a] lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012."
The new ending has infuriated some viewers. It wasn't clear when this version of the film appeared on Tencent Video, but screenshots of the edited film gained traction in China over the weekend, as commenters complained about the drastic alteration.
"This is too ridiculous," wrote one person on Tencent Video's page for the movie. Another called the change "a pillar of shame in cinematic history."
"No one wants to pay money to watch a classic that has been so ruined to such an extent," yet another person wrote on Douban, a movie review site.
Tencent declined to comment about the edit. CNN Business also reached out to the Cyberspace Administration of China, the internet regulator that oversees streaming platforms, as well as the China Film Administration, but neither government agency responded to a request for comment.
While it's unclear how or when the edit was made, it's not uncommon for foreign movies to undergo heavy censorship before finding a legitimate broadcast home in China. And the Chinese companies that hold the rights to international films in the country often self-censor to appease regulators before general releases.
According to the version of the film available on Tencent Video, the Chinese publisher of "Fight Club" is Pacific Audio & Video Co., a company based in the city of Guangzhou. It's affiliated with state-owned Guangdong Radio and Television.
A Pacific Audio & Video employee told CNN Business that she could not comment about the movie's streaming release. She did say, however, that the company no longer owned the rights to the movie's DVD release in the country, which it obtained more than a decade ago.
This isn't the first time Chinese audiences have been able to watch "Fight Club" legitimately in the country. The movie was shown at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2006 -- an event that Norton and other Hollywood stars even attended -- according to Chinese media reports at the time.
That same festival screened the movie again in 2017. The China Film Archive in Beijing has also held screenings, according to Chinese media.
CNN Business did not attend those events, and so can not verify whether those screenings were edited. However, one Douban commenter who wrote about her experience watching the movie at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2017 remarked about the "much anticipated ending," including the collapsing buildings.
Film censorship has a long history in China.
Since the early 1990s, authorities have allowed just a few dozen foreign films to be screened in the country each year -- only nine of the 26 Oscar best picture winners were screened publicly in China from 1994 to 2019, for example.
Movies or shows with controversial themes -- such as those that purportedly depict China in a bad light, portray taboo subjects like the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, or feature LGBTQ storylines -- are kept out entirely. And since China lacks a film rating system, any content approved by Chinese regulators is heavily edited to remove certain scenes, such as graphic sex or violence.
When the Oscar-winning Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" was released in China in 2019, for example, any mention of the Queen singer's sexuality -- as well as his AIDS diagnosis -- was edited out.
And the American blockbuster fantasy drama "Game of Thrones," which built its popularity on graphic sex and violence, was censored so heavily on Tencent Video that some viewers complained that it was turned into a staid "medieval European castle documentary."
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.