Hollywood film pulled from China box office

Hollywood flick ‘Monster Hunter’ has been pulled from theaters in China over racially offensive content.

The screenings were canceled one day after its release with a scene in which characters make a pun with the words “knees” and “Chinese” with some references to a racist playground chant.

 What seemed quite odd to the audience was the fact that in the Chinese subtitles the hard-to-translate pun was changed to “there is gold underneath my knees.”

The movie is an adaptation of a popular video game and opened in China on Friday before its theatrical release in the US.

A search for ‘Monster Hunter’ on the popular Chinese ticketing app Maoyan did not come up with showings in any cinema as of Sunday.

An online backlash in China over the scene made the movie pay dearly by being pulled from China cinemas.

“Even though subtitles come with the films sent for approval, censors you need to listen carefully before you pass it. Did you even listen to the dialogue?” Xiaozhu Nanhai, an influencer on Weibo wrote on Saturday.

Constantin Films, one of the production companies for the flick, said on Monday that it sincerely apologized to Chinese audiences.

AG/AG