Censored Asia

Censorship. The US has it for prime-time TV. If they show an R-rated on television they will cut out the sex, nudity, profanity and even some of the gore and violence.

But if you are watching a pay movie in the US whether it be in the theater or on TV for example on HBO or Cinemax there is no censorship.

But in Malaysia and Thailand, pay movies are censored. I was watching Thai TV and they were showing the movie "Catch me if you can" dubbed in Thai. Obscene language was replaced with silence and apparently they can't show cigarettes on TV because anytime someone was smoking, their cigarette was blurred out.

Recently in Malaysia I saw the movie Miami Vice and the F-Bomb was dropped repeatedly. Instead of silence they actually cut it out. There was lots of sex and nudity and that was cut out. Extreme violence was cut out. It almost felt like half a movie.

I was eating lunch in Malaysia and flipping thru a National Geographic because I knew there was nudity in some of the issues and I was curious to see if they would allow it since porn is not allowed. The nipples on the woman were struck out with a marker.

A few days later I'm watching the National Geographic TV channel and they were showing some tribe in Africa and the women were topless and they showed their breasts so I'm confused. I've never seen topless women on TV on public television in the US and yet they allow it here in Malaysia where all nudity seems to be banned.