Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo features scenes of violence, rape, torture, nudity. All a bit too much for Vietnamese sensibilities.The film now will not be shown in Vietnam, after the film's distributor withdrew it. This was confirmed by the National Film Board.

However there seems a little doubt as to whether the film was banned due to the film censor's demands, or else just banned in anticipation of the film censor's demands.

Tuoitre news reported that:

The film was to be released on March 2, but its international distributor, Sony Pictures, decided not to release it in Vietnam since the National Film Board requires the studio cut sensitive scenes from the movie.

However VietNam Net Bridge reported that:

The withdrawal has no connection to the Vietnamese censorship because the film had not been submitted to the national film censorship board yet.

Either way it is banned due to local film censorship rules.

Film viewers in India were in for some bad when Sony Pictures announced that the keenly-awaited The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo , had been banned. An official Sony statement read:

The Censor Board (of India) has adjudged the film unsuitable for public viewing in its unaltered form. And while we are committed to maintaining and protecting the vision of the director, we will, as always, respect the guidelines set by the board.

News of the ban has not just disappointed viewers, it has also shocked the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) who rather expected Sony to accept their long and unacceptable list of suggested cuts. CBFC CEO Pankaja Thakur said:

We are disturbed at the bad press it has generated, especially internationally. If they were unhappy with the decision, they should have brought it to the notice of the senior officers. We did not hear from Sony Pictures, nothing was brought to our notice, till we read about it in the papers.

The CBFC's proposed cuts for Dragon Tattoo include two graphic lovemaking scenes between journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Mara), a lesbian sex scene between Lisbeth and a barfly, a rape sequence and a scene in which she tortures her rapist, with a video of her being assaulted playing in the background. Thakur says the film was issued an A certificate, after extensive cuts, on December 19, 2011.

Sony didn't follow up the option of going to the revising committee to appeal against the cuts either, again to the annoyance of the film censors. Thakur ranted:

CBFC functions like a quasi-judicial organisation. From the lower court you go to the High Court and Supreme Court. So if they had a problem, the producers should have taken it to the next level. Filmmakers have a chance to be heard, cuts are discussed with them. They have lost so much time by not bringing it to our notice.

But Sony's spokesperson took a further dig at the squirming film censor and quickly dismissed the option as useless:

No appeal ever works.

Another issue irking the CBFC is that Dragon Tattoo had faced similar censorship problems in Malaysia and the Gulf countries. Japan rejected the original film too and okayed a revised version with pixellated scenes. Thakur lamented:

If they have accepted that in Japan, then why take such a stand in India?

The new film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has been very well received by the critics, but will not be screened in the UAE because the film makers have refused to accept the eight cuts suggested by the censors.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to make the cuts that were necessary for it to be screened. The filmmakers wouldn't allow it Piroska Szakacs from Empire International told The National.