Tom Cruise isn’t simply shooting down Russian fighter jets in his reboot of the 1986 classic Top Gun. He’s also angering China.
The sequel Top Gun: Maverick features Cruise’s character wearing a bomber jacket with the Taiwanese flag, something considered an independence symbol by authorities in Beijing, who consider the island to be part of China.
The flag was either missing or couldn’t be seen properly in a trailer for the film in 2019, prompting some people to wonder whether it had been removed to satisfy demands from China’s censors. But when the full movie recently hit cinemas, keen observers noted that the flags had made a comeback. Similarly, the Japanese flag was reinstated.
According to local online media outlet SETN, audiences cheered upon seeing national flag of Taiwan on Tom Cruise’s bomber jacket during an advanced movie screening, and applauded on several occasions throughout the film.
The film isn’t expected to be released in China. Commentary regarding the film on movie-focused Chinese social-media accounts focused on the film’s box office success. Maverick topped the Memorial Day weekend charts in North America, taking an estimated $124m (R1.9bn) in ticket sales.
Hollywood is now pushing back. The market is simply not worth the aggravation any more in attempting to please Chinese censors.
— Former movie executive Chris Fenton
Hollywood has a long tradition of bowing to pressure from Chinese censors, removing images and dialogue from scenes that might be considered offensive in President Xi Jinping’s increasingly conservative society.
But the decision to keep the image of the flag on the back of the jacket worn by protagonist Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell suggests that at least some Hollywood executives might be turning a new page when it comes to Chinese censorship.
“Hollywood is now pushing back,” Chris Fenton, a former movie executive who wrote Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business. “The market is simply not worth the aggravation any more in attempting to please Chinese censors.”
Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings withdrew from the $170m (R2.65bn) Paramount Pictures production over concerns the company’s affiliation with a movie celebrating the US military might anger Beijing, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Authorities in Beijing are particularly sensitive to anything that could imply that Taiwan is an independent country. In 2018, companies including Air France-KLM and Lufthansa were among more than 40 airlines that made changes to their websites to modify references to Taiwan.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
— Bloomberg
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