[DeanC]

I thought I woke up in Singapore one day when half the VCDs I bought had some form of censorship in them. Although this spared me the 9 minute rape scene in Irreversible, I kind of feel like it was crucial to the crux of the movie. Does anyone know the official policy on this topic here in HK? Is there a way of telling if what you're buying is censored.

[PDLM]

Nope.

The problem is that there are so many different censorship standards round Asia and you really don't know where the content you are buying has been censored for.

For example, Lust, Caution as shown in cinemas here is the full version, but if and when it makes it to HBO we'll get the "Singapore version", which will remove some rather central elements of the film (i.e. the sex), because HBO doesn't think it is worth giving HK its own feed and so we have to share one with the prudes in Singapore.

"Official policy" is never going to stop someone selling something that is more heavily censored than the law here would allow, so it's very much caveat emptor I'm afraid.