7. The Departed Insulted China's Microchip-Making Skills
The Departed is based on the brilliant Hong Kong acton film Infernal Affairs (the original whisper it might even be better than Martin Scorsese's remake), but it doesn't have a heck of a lot of Asian influence anywhere but the basic plot. In translating the story of undercover cops-and-robbers, they moved the story to Boston and Irish crime families. The two token nods to the continent of The Departed's origin? A throwaway line suggesting that the Chinese government at some point intended to use nuclear weapons on the neighbouring country of Taiwan, and Jack Nicholson's character implying that Chinese-made microchips are of an inferior quality. Which do you think caused uproar? Apparently the suggestion that China was going to nuke Taiwan is something of a sensitive political issue. The violence would've kept the film from passing China's notoriously strict censors anyway, but suggestion that the country makes inferior microchips was the real reason they censors totally banned The Departed from entering the People's Republic.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
