(Bloomberg) — David Fincher’s 1999 “Fight Club” is in the midst of a social media typhoon in China after a new edition replaced the original ending with a concise message saying all criminals have been arrested and that the government has triumphed.

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Tencent Video subscribers scoffed at the recently abbreviated and changed finish by distorting the message and intent of the original film. Based on Chuck Palahniuk’s e-book of the same name, “Fight Club” culminates when the nameless narrator kills his tight ego Tyler Durden and unleashes a string of explosions that destroy all banking and credit records, restoring the economy. None of this is provided in the new Chinese version, which treats the film’s corporate Mayhem assignment as a foiled and misguided attempt at crime.

“Thanks to the clue provided by Tyler, the police temporarily understood the total plan and arrested all the criminals, effectively preventing the bomb explosion,” tencent Video’s edition tells viewers, before adding his own artistic touch: “After the trial, Tyler sent an insane asylum for mental treatment.

A spokesman for Tencent Holdings Ltd. se declined to comment. Vice, who had previously reported on the reconfigured ending, said the rights to the film were in the hands of Pacific Audio.

“Lord of War,” which tells the story of an arms dealer played by Nicolas Cage, is another American film that has suffered a similar contraction. Broadcast audience in China complained about its last 30 missing minutes, replaced by white text on a black screen. saying “Yuri Orlov confessed to all the crimes he was officially charged with in court and was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. “

Foreign filmmakers have diluted or altered content for years to pass Beijing’s censorship, but it’s rare for entire endings to be reversed, especially in older films where millions have already noticed pirated copies.

“When other people tell you that the hero of Shawshank ended up in a crime again, that there was no explosion at the Fight Club and that Nicolas Cage was arrested, you will wonder if your memory exists,” one commenter said on Twitter’s Chinese Weibo. .

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