Parsing the Babel cuts

Babel premiered in Beijing on Tuesday. The film has not been dubbed; all theaters are showing the subtitled version.

Here’s how The Beijing News described the domestic version yesterday:

Less than 5 minutes of cuts to Babel

…the total length of the domestic screening of Babel is nearly 140 minutes, just three or four minutes shorter than the overseas version. The rumor circulating previously that the parts involving Japan had been completely excised was proven to be false, and the rumors that pixelization technology would be used to obscure revealing scenes was also incorrect – the domestic distributors used the most common method of cutting scenes. This reporter observed that apart from cutting out all of the scenes where Rinko Kikuchi’s character is naked, the film also cut a scene at the beginning showing a Morrocan kid masturbating, and one in which Gael García Bernal tears the head off a chicken. After watching the film, this reporter felt that the excised content basically had no effect on a normal viewing experience.

Here’s what the Mirror said:

Cuts to Babel not minor, objections from audience not major

…Upon watching the film, this reporter discovered that compared to the version that screened in the US, the movie had more than a few cuts. However, the majority of audience members interviewed said that they did not mind.

The Mirror article also reports that of the 50 audience members surveyed, 70% gave the movie an 8/10 or higher, and were particularly pleased with the plotting. The other 30% felt that it was hard to understand or that it did not live up to their expectations. 90% of respondents didn’t think the quality of the film was affected by the deletions.