Australian horror film Together has ignited fury in China after audiences discovered that a gay couple was digitally altered into a straight pair, sparking accusations of “distortion and misrepresentation.” Viewers condemned the AI-style edits—alongside censored nudity and erased LGBT references—as disrespectful to both the story and the actors. Distributor Neon blasted the unauthorised changes, exposing once again how China’s rigid censorship policies clash with global cinema and LGBT representation.
An Australian horror film has sparked backlash in China after audiences discovered it had been digitally altered to remove LGBT representation. Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie, was shown in advance screenings on 12 September, but cinemagoers soon noticed changes compared to the original version. The film, directed by Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks, follows a couple who encounter a mysterious supernatural force after moving to the countryside. It premiered at Sundance in January and was released in the US and Australia in July, earning strong reviews and a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, viewers in China spotted major edits once screenshots of the unaltered version circulated online. In one scene, the male lead’s nude body was obscured with extra steam, but the most controversial change was a gay couple being digitally altered into a heterosexual pair, with one man’s face replaced by a woman’s. Several references to same-sex relationships were also removed. The use of what appeared to be AI-generated edits caused particular outrage, with Chinese filmgoers accusing distributors of “distortion and misrepresentation” rather than simple censorship.
On the popular review platform Douban, where the film has a 6.9 rating, many criticised the edits as disrespectful both to the original story and to LGBT identities. One user wrote that not only had the plot been changed, but the edits also “disrespected the actor’s sexual orientation.” The film’s global distributor, Neon, condemned the unauthorised alterations, saying it did not approve of the edits and demanded that Chinese distributor Hishow stop showing the altered version.
China has a history of censoring sexual and LGBT content in films, with recent examples including altering a nude scene in Oppenheimer. Authorities have also escalated crackdowns on same-sex content, including arresting dozens of young authors of gay fiction this year.
