Kylie too raunchy, Friends too racy and Ally 'unnatural'
Kylie Minogue was too raunchy, an episode of Friends was too racy and toe-sucking in Ally McBeal amounted to an "unnatural sexual act" that was way out of bounds.
Malaysian officials banned, excised or otherwise censored 163 items from television and movie screens in the first six months of 2002 for unacceptable portrayals of sex, profanity, violence and religion, documents released today show.
Some of the items on the Film Censorship Board’s banned list have titles indicative of pornography or violence that wouldn’t escape the censor’s knife in many countries.
Many others were rejected because they portray images of Islamic prophets, something considered blasphemous in Malaysia’s national religion. Those prophets include Christian figures who are also revered in Islam, such as Jesus, Solomon and Adam and Eve.
But dozens of other snipped scenes and programs would barely raise eyebrows in most places outside Malaysia - a conservative country of 23 million people, where the burgeoning middle-class has nevertheless embraced American TV and Hollywood movies.
The concert video Kylie Minogue Live in Sydney, for example, featured “wild performances” by scantily clad dancers and singers that were a “poke in the eye” to Malaysian morals, the board document says.
An episode of Friends – Year 8, Episode 11 – was cited for portraying casual sex, promiscuity among youths, prostitution and pregnancy outside the institution of marriage.
The offending episode of Ally McBeal featured a scene in which a man sucks the big toe of a woman in an office. The episode depicted “unnatural sexual acts: the licking of toes and wrists,” the censors said.
Censorship Board Chairman Shaari Mohamad Noor has said that strict monitoring helps protect family values.
