Asia Pacific Censorship News

Plane is a 2023 US action thriller by Jean-François Richet
Starring Gerard Butler, Mike Colter and Yoson An

A pilot finds himself caught in a war zone after he's forced to land his commercial aircraft during a terrible storm.

The film was withdrawn from Philippines distribution rather than officially banned by the film censor, but the film censor loudly condemned the film for its portrayal of locals as the baddies. Politicians also applied pressure for a ban.

The chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board said that while the film is fictional, the country should not be portrayed in a negative and inaccurate light.

Sen. Robinhood Padilla said: This should not be allowed. ... The reputation of our Motherland is at stake , adding that it is acceptable to discuss issues among Filipinos, but criticisms from foreigners should not be tolerated.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri even expressed concern that the film could jeopardize the government's tourism promotions because it paints a wrong picture of the Philippines.

Malaysia's Film Censorship Board (LPF) has announced that will implement a new ratings system beginning from February 1 2023.

The old system, running since January 2012, consists of the following ratings:

• U or Umum for films that can be seen for all ages
• P13 for films requiring parental supervision
• 18 for films deemed to contain violent, political or mature content

Now from 1st February 2023 the P13 rating will be replaced by P12 and strict age ratings of 13 and 16 will be introduced. So the new system will be:

• U or Umum for films that can be seen for all ages
• P12 for films requiring parental supervision for under 12s
• 13 for viewers aged 13 or over
• 16 for viewers aged 16 or over
• 18 for films deemed to contain violent, political or mature content

The changes are reported to be a response to requests from local movie producers. Director Bade Azmi was one of the voices calling upon the agency to make changes, citing his experience working on the film KL Menjerit , where significant story details were removed. He explained:

Illegal racing and accident scenes had been cut out. But this movie is about illegal street racers. If you take out the racing scenes, I have no story to tell.

Taiwan's Legislature has passed draft amendments to restrict the use of technology-enabled sexual images and video. The new laws will make the production and spread of such fake or manipulated images and video for profit a crime punishable by a jail term of up to seven years.

The draft bills were proposed after the arrest in 2021 of a Taiwanese YouTuber for making and selling deepfake pornographic videos of dozens of prominent women, including female politicians.

Under the approved legislation, producing sexual material involving images or video of another individual without that person's consent is subject to a maximum of three years in prison, while the unauthorized distribution of such material can result in a prison term of six months to five years. Anyone found guilty of distributing such content for profit faces an additional punishment of up to one half of the prescribed sentence.