“Bohemian Rhapsody” received mixed reviews upon its release, where several moviegoers accused the Malaysia Film Censorship Board of cutting several scenes from the movie.
According to Malay Mail, a total of 24 minutes were cut from the 2-hour-14-minute Freddie Mercury Biopic, totaling the runtime to 110 minutes here in Malaysia.
The daily also reported that deleted scenes include the music video of “I Want To Break Free” and a scene where Mercury explains to his fiancee that he is bisexual.
However, GSC Cinemas has refuted the claims, stating that the runtime in Malaysia is 131 minutes and not 110 minutes. The cinema chain also clarified that they had no say in censorship, saying, “This is between the studio and the censorship board. Cinemas can’t do censorship. We are only playing the content.”
Apart from the censorship, the movie has been stamped with an 18 rating, in contrast to the PG-13 rating in the United States and United Kingdom.
Malaysians also took to Twitter to voice their dissatisfaction, asking those who haven’t watched the movie to watch it somewhere else or wait for its Netflix release instead.
https://twitter.com/danisafiya/status/1061612604861206528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The rating for Bohemian Rhapsody in Malaysia is 18+ but I'm not sure why there are a lot of censoring & scene cuts. Then, what's the point of categorizing it under 18+? Hello, we're all adults here!? Such a waste of money 😠
— Chimet Syahida (@chimet_s) November 7, 2018
What turned me off at some points during the film was LPF's (Lembaga Penapisan Filem) censorship. #BohemianRhapsody already rated 18+ in Malaysia but they stupidly censored/deleted lots of scenes & dialogues. They even muted the word 'AIDS'. Absurd.
— Rosman Nizar (@RosmanPositivo) November 7, 2018
UPDATE (Tuesday, 13th November):
Our sister site MovieDash received an official confirmation from 20th Century Fox Malaysia that “Bohemian Rhapsody” is 131 minutes. Approximately 3 minutes were cut from the official runtime of 134 minutes.
The scene where Freddie utters the word ‘AIDS’ is muted. The part where the icon come clean about his sexuality to his wife Mary has also been edited in a way that doesn’t come across too straight forward. However, audiences will still see the Queen lead vocalist explore various relationships with men.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” chronicles the life of Freddy Mercury, who was the lead singer of Queen. It stars Rami Malek and Ben Hardy and made its Malaysian premiere on 8th November.
