Neon pulled Together, starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco, from Chinese theatres after finding the local distributor made an “unauthorised” edit to a scene changing a man’s face into a woman’s to show a gay couple as heterosexual.
The horror movie directed by Michael Shanks follows Franco and Brie as they move to the countryside and encounter a mysterious force that causes horrific changes to their bodies.
After the film was released in China earlier this month, viewers reported on social media that a male character’s face in a scene had been replaced with a woman’s to show a homosexual relationship as heterosexual.
Most viewers only noticed the alteration after side-by-side comparisons circulated on social media.
Some also said that certain sex scenes had been removed from the final version shown in theatres.
ADAM AND STEVE TO ADAM AND EVE
— Angelica 🌐⚛️🇹🇼🇨🇳🇺🇸 (@AngelicaOung) September 17, 2025
Here’s a use of AI I bet you never thought of! The horror film “Together” featured a gay couple in a peripheral role (see below) that got magicked into a straight couple in the Chinese edition.
No spoilers, but this definitely makes the film make… pic.twitter.com/bsxw5019uj
Neon bought the global distribution rights for Together at the Sundance Film Festival for $15m and sold Chinese distribution rights to Hishow.
The Wrap reported that Hishow pulled the film from theatres in China after a request from Neon.
“Neon does not approve of Hishow’s unauthorised edit of the film and have demanded they cease distributing this altered version,” the company said in a statement.
The Independent has contacted representatives for Shanks, Neon and Hishow for comment.
On Douban, the Chinese equivalent of IMDb, some viewers said they were alarmed at the digital alterations.
“The evolution to using AI to directly swap faces is truly terrifying. In the future, we won't even know we're watching the original film,” one person said.
“That’s great!” another wrote. “We can re-release Brokeback Mountain, God's Own Country, Lan Yu, and Happy Together, and use AI to remake them into heterosexual romances with just one click. That’s faster and better than taking Chinese medicine! We're so beautiful here! We have hope!”
In a four-star review of Together, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey writes that while Shanks’s ideas are smart, and his direction of the digital and practical effects suitably crunchy and nasty, “it’s the casting that makes all the difference”.
“Brie and Franco are married in real life, and that lends an easy, lived-in quality to their characters on screen,” she says. “But the genius lies in the fact that neither of them are traditional horror stars – they’re comedy people, used to bending their bodies and faces in odd ways in order to get a very different kind of reaction from audiences.”
This wasn’t the first time LGBTQ+ content had been edited or removed from films for the Chinese market.
In 2018, Bohemian Rhapsody had references to Freddie Mercury’s sexuality removed. Warner Bros did away with lines of dialogue where characters Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald referenced their previous romantic relationship in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, while streaming platforms edited out lesbian characters or references in shows like Friends.
Homosexuality is decriminalised in China but same-sex relationships are not legally recognised and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and content continue to face restrictions.
In 2018, Chinese broadcaster Mango TV was barred from airing the Eurovision Song Contest after the channel censored LGBT+ content during the semi-final.
China tightly controls content in both traditional and online media and holds internet platforms accountable if they fail to police content.
In 2021, the National Radio and Television Administration issued a directive banning the appearance of “effeminate men” on screen and urging broadcasters to “resolutely put an end to abnormal aesthetics” and promote “revolutionary culture”.
Earlier this year, several young authors who wrote gay erotic fiction, called danmei, were detained and accused of producing and disseminating “obscene materials for profit”.
