These 8 Key Scenes Were Cut From Malaysia's Censored Version Of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'

It all started with a couple of tweets. 

According to Malay Mail, some Malaysian moviegoers took to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia (LPF), claiming that up to 24 minutes worth of key scenes - especially those deemed homosexual in nature - were removed from the movie's 134-minute runtime despite its 18 rating. The movie is rated PG-13 in the US and UK. 

News of the purported heavy censorship spread like wildfire, and was soon picked up by international media like Independent UK, NME, and UltimateClassicRock. 

Local cinema chains TGV and GSC quickly dispelled the aforementioned claims, clarifying that the movie's official runtime in Malaysia is 131 minutes. Distributor 20th Century Fox also decried the "fake news" in a pretty savage Facebook post: 

LPF later confirmed that it had cut 12 scenes from the movie, four of which involved "gay moments", amounting to about 180 seconds worth of cuts. It added that the cuts were necessary despite the 18 rating, as the movie would have been banned in Malaysia otherwise. 

Curious, I thought I'd try to figure out which specific scenes were removed from the local cut of Bohemian Rhapsody. 

With a closer repeat watch and quite a bit of digging on the Interwebs, these are the key moments and specific lines of dialogue which - to the best of my knowledge - were absent from the Malaysian cut:

In Malaysia, the scene cuts out just after Paul (played by Allen Leech) says "If you say so" in response to Freddie explaining that the song is written for and dedicated to his then-fiancée Mary Austin. The scene resumes right after the supposed kiss (Paul: "I know who you are, Freddie Mercury.").

The scene is briefly featured in both the official trailer and final trailer of the movie. 

After showing Mary (played by Lucy Boynton) the massive crowd in Rio singing Love of My Life and prompted to address the elephant in the room, the scene cuts out just after Freddie says, "I've been thinking about it a lot."

According to Billboard, Freddie cautiously looks up at his soon-to-be-former fiancée and says, "I think I’m bisexual." She then responds, almost pityingly, with, "No, Freddie. You're gay." 

It may just be a couple of lines removed from the scene, but what was supposed to be an emotional scene left Malaysian moviegoers - especially those who aren't familiar with Freddie Mercury's life story - confused instead. 

According to IMDb, the scene is supposed to go like this:

Freddie: What do you think?

*Roger: [looks at Freddie's moustache] Gayer...? 

Freddie: [gesturing to his face] Not this, darling. THIS. [zooms out to mansion]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In fact, a bulk of the three-minute cut came from this sequence. We didn't even get to see the first time they met, in which Freddie drunkenly hits on Jim as the latter and a couple of other servers cleaned up the aftermath of the wild party at Freddie's mansion.

To Freddie's surprise, Jim rebuffed his advances ("Put your hands on me again and I'll thump ya"), prompting the rock god to apologise profusely for his behaviour. In the next scene, the duo sat down for a brief conversation and even shared a kiss.

The Malaysian cut only showed a few minutes of interaction between both characters without much context and ended with Jim saying, "I like you too, Freddie. Come and find me when you decide to like yourself." 

It was a pretty fun sequence too. No thanks to the cut, the subsequent scene in which Freddie rants about getting the blame for dressing up in drag and the music video's MTV ban would make very little sense to viewers who aren't aware of the music video's existence. 

If you're curious as to how the scene played out, a bootleg version can be found on Tumblr. 

You can also watch the original music video HERE:

Not sure what was the point, as you could clearly see Freddie mouthing it... as well as in the subtitles. 

After the couple and Jim left the band's trailer, Freddie asked the band what they think of David. 

Brian May (played by Gwilym Lee) said, "He's alright," to which Freddie remarked, "I think he's gay." 

Its removal was confirmed by LPF chairman Mohd Zamberi Abdul Aziz in an interview with Malay Mail.

Having seen it twice, I can testify that there's nothing quite like witnessing the musical spectacle of the last 20 minutes on the big screen with surround sound. Seriously, the magnitude of the Live Aid concert is not gonna be the same if you were to watch it at home.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not too keen on censorship as much as the next liberal ('coz I firmly believe that we're all adults who are capable of thinking for ourselves), but truly - don't let the three-minute cut stop you from celebrating the music and legend that is Queen. I don't know about you, but I got major FOMO vibes from the concert sequence and deeply regretted being born in 1991. 

If nothing else, catch it to see Rami Malek's Oscar-worthy performance as the fabulous Freddie Mercury. The guy sure has come a long way since playing the cute pharoah in Night at the Museum. :')