Besides food, one thing Malaysia certainly seems to love is censorship. We have so many different types of censorship, it is a marvel we have not received an award for it yet.
Yesterday, Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC), Malaysia’s largest cinema chain, took a subtle jab at the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia when it posted on social media a poster of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga with the caption “Welcome to the Multiverse Saga. Malaysia can watch or not? Dunno.”
This was after the “indefinite postponement” of Marvel’s latest film release in the country, Thor: Love and Thunder. The censorship board has yet to release any information about why the film’s release was delayed or whether it would ever be allowed in Malaysian theaters.
The poster, which was released this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, showed the release dates for Marvel’s The Multiverse Saga, encompassing phases four, five, and six of the studio’s plans.
Facebook users shared the post 1,464 times and left 582 comments, many of which echoed the movie chain’s unease.
While several Malaysians hoped they would be allowed to watch the movies, some users chuckled and added to GSC’s subtle shade.
Although the censorship board did not explain its reason for delaying the release of the latest Thor film, some have speculated that it might have something to do with the film’s portrayal of various godly deities, which might have been deemed offensive to the country’s conservative religious sensibilities.
The 1998 animated film Prince of Egypt and 1979’s Monty Python’s Life of Brian were banned in Malaysia due to their religious themes.
More recently, the Disney animated film Lightyear was banned in Malaysia, and several other countries, due to it having a brief depiction of an LGBT relationship.
