Seth Rogen‘s The Interview wouldn’t be the first comedy that pokes fun at tense international relations with a hostile country like North Korea, and it most certainly will not be the last. In the film, Rogen and James Franco play journalists who travel North Korea to interview Kim Jong-Un, which is actually a covert mission, as they have been recruited by the CIA to assassinate the dictator.
As you can imagine, the initial premise did not sit well with the dictator, who has been sending out a few threats of his own since the release of the first few trailers.
Now, in response, Sony is altering a scene and possibly cut another to appease relations with North Korea, according to THR. Minor spoilers follow, so if you don’t want to know what will happen, then stay where you are. If you are interested, continue reading to learn what will be cut/altered.
The report from THR says one of the things that is being altered is the military honorary hardware that are pinned on soldiers. According to the report, the hardware depicted in the film is actual hardware worn by the North Korean military to honor the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, 31, and his late father, Kim Jong Il. Showcasing the military decorations in any manner would be considered blasphemous to North Korea (one of nine countries that holds nuclear weapons).
While that may sound like something small at first, Sony is making a huge change to the way Kim Jong Un dies in The Interview:
Sources say the studio is considering cutting a scene in which the face of Kim Jong Un (played by Randall Park) is melted off graphically in slow motion. Although studio sources insist that Sony Japan isn’t exerting pressure, the move comes in the wake of provocative comments from Pyongyang that the film’s concept “shows the desperation of the U.S. government and American society.”
The fact that there is a face melting scene (in slo-mo no less) in the film, makes me want to see the original cut. Hopefully we won’t have to wait until the DVD/Blu-ray is released to see it happen. In fact, I just hope they make a domestic cut and an international cut. That might solve the problem. But honestly, how is releasing an altered version of a film like The Interview, which will probably end up dead at the end of the film, going to help our relations with North Korea? It’s not like North Korea is going to change their policies on human rights anytime soon.
[Source: THR]
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