Tarantino’s Film is Censored…Again.

First off, if you haven’t seen “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” yet—don’t worry about it. It’s not superb, or even remarkable. 

For a Tarantino film, it’s pretty blasé. A good movie, obviously, and always entertaining. But it ignored the unparalleled talent of Margot Robbie and tries to convince its audience that a fictional mediocre actor (DiCaprio) and his best friend (Pitt) are more interesting than Charles Manson and his family. 

And I’m sorry, Tarantino—but that is not correct.

This isn’t a review. I just want you to know, darling readers (IS ANYBODY OUT THERE), that if you want to watch a Tarantino movie that’ll knock your socks off, go for “Reservoir Dogs.” 

Here’s the tea: like most filmmakers, there’s a staggered release of movies throughout different countries. The movie will premiere in the country of production and at filmmakers’ discretion (usually the US) and then release periodically across the world so that the films’ box office can markup accordingly. 

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” would have been the first Tarantino movie organically released in China. Due to the country’s intense censorship, all previous Tarantino movies have been delayed in release and cut/edited according to China’s wishes. Tarantino had been fighting the butchering of his films for his entire career, and his latest film looked like the first film to make the cut and be released in full to the Chinese population.  

However, at the last minute, Bruce Lee’s daughter—Shannon Lee made a direct appeal to the Chinese National Film Administration that demanded changes to Tarantino’s portrayal of her father. China agreed and, until alterations are made to the disrespectful depiction of Bruce Lee, will not be releasing the film. 

And here’s the thing—China’s totally in the right. Respect for Bruce Lee? I got that. Respect for representation in the media? I’ve got boatloads of that. 

This movie has a gigantic cast—it’s legitimately huge, in the way only a nonlinear smorgasbord of a Tarantino movie can be. 

The only person of color is Mike Moh, who portrays Bruce Lee. The martial artist has a truthful depiction in the film, sort of. Lee was a phenomenal and famous martial artist that trained Sharron Tate in a fight scene. However, his personality is where people begin to take offense. 

Being the only POC in a large film is a huge responsibility. But to be the only POC character and have a script that portrays a real person as an arrogant, naïve “foreigner” is largely disrespectful and a disgrace to the memory of a beloved performer. 

It gets even worse when you remember that in the film, Bruce Lee is beaten in a fight by a made-up white man (Pitt) that has absolutely no formal training as Bruce Lee did. 

Tarantino takes a lot of liberty in this film, particularly in rewriting a well-known American tragedy. But to produce an unflattering portrayal of one of the few real people in the film is insulting to history. 

In my opinion, China was in the right to cancel its premiere of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” And if the only thing Tarantino has to say is that it’s “negatively affecting the box office reports,” then I really don’t see why we should feel bad for him.