Beauty & The Beast postponement ; rational or ridiculous

The breaking yesterday was that the screening of Beauty & The Beast has been postponed due to internal review for its portrayal of gay people. Of course, it has cause an uproar nationwide. However, is it rational ? Hit the jump to read my thought about this issue.

Let me preface this by saying, I've been jumping the gun in my FB post yesterday. The movie hasn't been banned, just postponed. There's a big difference in those two words. Those that read the Star Online article would know that the reason for the internal review was due to the existent of gay people portrayal in the movie. Josh Gad's character in the movie was said to have an 'exclusive scene' for the gay people. It raised the alarm immediately hence being pulled from the screening indefinitely.

This is not the first time this kind of thing happens. Scott Pilgrim was banned completely in Malaysia for featuring gay scene, and I believe Fifty Shades franchise was banned completely; though nobody really care about that in Malaysia. That being said, Scoot Pilgrim has been screened on AXN several times where the gay scene being cut (same sex kissing), and from that track record, we might be seeing this movie being banned in Malaysia (UPDATE: Beauty & The Beast's gay scene has been reported to be cut).

However if we look back to the movie that has been released recently, you have Independence Day 2 (ID2) that had a gay lead character and Star Trek Beyond had Sulu being gay. Lets not forget all that butt shot in Suicide Squad and The Fast & Furious franchise. Maleficient had that 'date-rape' allegory scene and Malaysia's own Pekak (Deaf) had an off-screen (?) rape scene that very much left a bad taste to everyone watching it. So, what makes Beauty and the Beast difference ? To me, there are two reasons; one, the scene is an explicit on screen portrayal, and there is a possibly an on screen portrayal. Two, kids are watching.

I'll touch on the first reason first. If I had to guess, we might be seeing Josh Gad's come out in the movie. Either he confess his love towards Luke Evan's Gaston or they might go as far as include a kissing. If this happens, they had gone into Scott Pilgrim and it all make sense (there's a counter argument, I get to that later). ID2 and Star Trek Beyond didn't undergo the same problem because they only provide a subtle hint and for those who didn't actually know would just flew through the head. However, this is not the case when it come to a scene involving lesbians. Of course full frontal lesbians sex are being banned (Handmaiden and Blue's the Warmest Color), but Ghost in the Shell had a same sex kiss involving woman in its first trailer but there had been not a single outcry, because is consider or framed as 'sexy'.

The second one is because kids are watching. When it comes to Suicide Squad or any of the Fast & Furious movie, the viewers are mostly adult. So review board are little bit lenient on having butt shot in it. Most people also should realized that LPF still cuts movie even when it is R-rated. Deadpool had a whole chunk of on-screen sex scene, which I only knew when watching it in Germany. However we expect parents brought their kids to watch Beauty and the Beast, and when kids come into picture, we had to be a little bit strict. That being said, I don't think this version of Beauty & The Beast are being made for kids. Besides, I think your kids better off watching the newer version of Disney Princesses (Rapunzel, Frozen, and Moana) than this fairy tale version.

So is this internal review relevant ? I would say yes, with a but... .As a Muslim country, there is some line you can't cross. Same sex relationship is forbidden in Islam hence, we must put full effort for it to not  influence our Muslim child. So if the board forbid same sex kissing in a movie, then cut all of them (who knows, they might as well cut that kiss in Ghost in the Shell). And if somehow the movie end up being banned, you can still watch it down the line through online or with DVD, and some of you might as well steal it from the internet regardless it is banned or not (not good guys, not good). 

However, we; especially the LPF board do need to recognize that these people exist and their portrayal in the movie are getting more and more prominent.Most of movie viewers and industry people are the LGBTQ community, so the studio are getting more eager to put more portrayal of them to get more people in to the cinema. Parents should prepared and expect themselves to explain what is LGBTQ all about and how do we consider it based on our respective religion. That's why some movie are being rated PG13 because the parent are expected to guide the kids what is wrong and what is not.

Whatever the end results gonna be, we hope it would be a win-win scenario for us. If it is just like Deadpool, (which if you search it on internet, it IS, except it happened in multiple scenes including during a song) then they could just cut it out and no one would ever blink. To me, that Josh Gad's gay scene is irrelevant to the whole story because people are going there either to relive their memory of the classic movie or lets be honest, are in for Emma Watson. 

So what do you think of this whole situation ? Do you agree with my opinion ? Sound off your thought in the comment section. Stay tuned for more editorial pieces and comics updates by following and liking Comikrew Studio right here or on Facebook. Don't forget to subscribe to my comic on Tapastic and finally follow and hit me up on Twitter.