Reports in September 2025 said a Chinese screening version of the body-horror film Together altered a same-sex wedding scene: one groom’s face appeared to have been replaced with a woman’s, making the couple look heterosexual. Director Michael Shanks said he and distributor NEON decided to pull the film’s Chinese distribution after learning of the change. The reported use of AI has not been technically confirmed.
What reportedly changed in the wedding scene
Chinese journalists who attended advance screenings sent Shanks photographs of a doctored shot, he told ABC. In that image, one of the two grooms appeared with a woman’s face. ABC also reported that other shots in the sequence had been cropped so only one of the men was visible. The effect was to conceal the same-sex couple, not merely remove a brief or explicit image. ABC News reported Shanks’s account and the altered shots.
Some coverage described the change as AI face-swapping or said AI appeared to have been used. The technical method was not officially confirmed in the reporting, so it is more accurate to call it an apparent or reportedly AI-assisted alteration than to state that AI use was established.
Who made the edit, and how NEON responded
Reports identified Hishow as the film’s Chinese distributor and attributed the altered version to the distributor. NEON, the film’s distributor outside China, said it had not approved the change. In a statement reproduced by TheWrap, NEON said: “Neon does not approve of Hishow’s unauthorized edit of the film and have demanded they cease distributing this altered version.” TheWrap reported that Hishow pulled the film from theaters at NEON’s request. TheWrap reported NEON’s statement and Hishow’s withdrawal.
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The available accounts describe action by the distributor and NEON; they do not establish that a Chinese government agency or censorship board ordered this specific edit. That distinction matters: the incident was reported against a broader backdrop of censorship, but an official directive for this alteration has not been documented in the cited coverage.
Release timeline: screenings took place, wider release was halted
The Guardian reported selected cinema screenings on September 12, 2025, and a general release planned for September 19. After backlash, the planned wider release was halted. SBS also reported that the wide release was stopped, without giving an explanation. The Guardian’s September 2025 report gives the screening and planned release dates; SBS also reported that the wide release was halted.
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These reports establish that the planned September release did not proceed as scheduled; they do not establish whether a later mainland China release occurred. It would therefore be premature to describe the film as permanently banned or to claim it is currently unavailable there.
Why the change matters to the story
Shanks objected both to the erasure of a queer relationship and to the effect on the film’s plot. “To completely change the gender of a character — completely change something that’s a representation of a queer relationship as well as making the plot make less sense — is just baffling,” he told ABC. The edit altered a character’s gender presentation and obscured a relationship that has meaning within the story, rather than simply trimming a scene.
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How this fits the wider history of screen censorship
The Guardian and SBS situated the incident within a longer pattern of cuts to sensitive or sexual material in imported films and broader restrictions on LGBTQ themes in Chinese film and television. Both accounts described digitally altering a scene instead of cutting it outright as a relatively new approach. That context helps explain why commentators viewed the change as significant, but it does not establish that comparable edits are common.
Dr Lin Song, a researcher of LGBTQIA+ cultures in China, told ABC: “Once this becomes normalised, I do see this as an even bigger threat to the more public representations of queerness in China.” This was a warning about possible future effects, not evidence that face-swapping edits have become routine. ABC’s coverage includes Song’s comment and the director’s response.
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