Chinese Censors Clamp Down on 'Skyfall'
James Bond might have escaped from China unscathed in his latest adventure, but the same can’t be said of Skyfall itself -- as shots of a Chinese character being killed and dialogue referring to prostitution and politics were either edited out or left obscured in subtitles.
The missing scene was set in Shanghai, when a French hitman (played by Ola Rapace) is shown shooting a Chinese security guard in the elevator lobby of a skyscraper before preparing for an assassination.
Later in the film, in a casino in Macau, Daniel Craig's Bond questions the story’s femme fatale, Severine (Berenice Marlohe), about whether her tattoo is the result of her being forced into a local prostitution ring at an early age. While the lines remains intact on the soundtrack, the Chinese subtitles suggest the spy is asking her about being coerced into the mob instead.
The film’s Chinese subtitles also fudged the exposition of the back story of the film’s villain, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), who tells Bond how he was handed over to the Chinese authorities while working for the MI6 in Hong Kong. He adds that he suffered immense torture at the hands of his interrogators before attempting to kill himself.
