KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 ― A narrow vote following a five-hour discussion had allowed Disney's Beauty and the Beast film to be screened here uncensored from Thursday next week, local Mandarin daily Sin Chew Daily reported today.
According to an unnamed source, the report said the appeals committee of the Malaysia's Film Censorship Board (LPF) had in a long meeting yesterday decided to allow the full screening of the film without the earlier proposed cuts of “gay moments”.
The report said all 17 members of the committee had first watched the full version of the film before discussing Disney's appeal against the cuts, before a discussion that kicked off at 9.30am and ended at 2.30pm.
The closed-door meeting was reportedly attended by various other representatives who did not have voting rights, including those from Putrajaya and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
The report said the heated discussion saw those opposing an uncensored release citing religious arguments and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues.
However, those against censorship argued that the alleged “gay moments” do not clearly show any homosexual feelings.
The vote was ultimately nine in favour and eight against, allowing Disney's appeal for an uncensored Malaysian release of the film.
LPF chairman Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid has yet to respond to Malay Mail Online's queries yesterday on the release of the uncut version of Beauty and the Beast here with a P13 rating.
A P13 classification means viewers below age 13 are allowed in the cinema if accompanied by their parents or an adult guardian as such films were deemed to contain horror, negative acts, non-excessive suspense elements, and/or plotlines that are difficult to understand and can disturb children's emotions.
The two other classifications available for films in Malaysia are “U” and “18”, namely for all viewers without age limits and for those aged 18 and above. The latter would be for films that contain elements such as non-excessive adult scenes, as well as those with social or religious elements that require a high level of maturity to understand.
The film was initially set to screen in Malaysian cinemas on March 16, but film distributor The Walt Disney Co (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd was reported last week as postponing it indefinitely pending “internal review”.
Abdul Halim had previously explained that the LPF had proposed cuts of four minutes and 38 seconds from the live-remake of the classic Disney animation, due to film director Bill Cordon's announcement that the movie contained a “first exclusively gay moment”.
Disney Malaysia had refused to cut the scenes involving an alleged gay character from the movie for Malaysia, and was previously reported to have filed an appeal with the Home Ministry and postponed the Malaysian release to March 30 to give local authorities time to decide.
Yesterday, local cinemas announced that the film would be screened on March 30 with no cuts.
