Is "Fifty Shades of Grey" banned in the Philippines? Ever since the much-awaited trailer to the film adaptation of the erotic E.L. James book franchise debuted globally, there have been concerns about the excessive promotion of the film, especially in morning programs.
In Southeast Asia, rumors about "Fifty Shades of Grey" being banned in the Philippines for its provocative showing of sex were recently debunked by the country's content watchdog, Yahoo News reported. Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) Chairman, Toto Villareal, denied the rumors, saying that his office has not received any application to review "Fifty Shades of Grey."
"Neither has the MTRCB received any trailer material for review," Villareal told Yahoo News.
On the other hand, fans of the movie in the Philippines should not breathe a collective sigh of relief yet. Citing a Manila News Online report, KDramastars revealed that concerned entities, lead by the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), are moving to ensure that, at least, parts of the movie get censored in its Philippine debut. CBCP, Couples for Christ, Youths for Christ and Kristiyanong Totoo (True Christians) has reportedly requested the MTRCB to tone down the sexual scenes in the film. Moreover, the report said that, although the content watchdog accepted their requests to ban the film, MTRCB opted to review on whether cutting some of the film's scenes would be necessary. The report deduced that there would be roughly ten minutes of the film that would be censored by MTRCB.
KDramastars said this is not the first time CBCP petitioned to ban certain movies for Philippine viewing. "Da Vinci Code," "Noah" and the "Harry Potter" series were some of the movies that the conservative Catholic group wanted to censor or ban.
If the reports about "Fifty Shades of Grey" being censored were true, then Philippine fans would need to pay attention to MTRCB's latest rules about trailers and movies. Villareal told Yahoo Philippines that they now classify trailers as G (General Patronage, or suitable for all ages), PG (for Parental Guidance) and X (not suitable for public exhibition). For a trailer to be shown before or with any movie, the trailer must be classified as G. Moreover, a PG trailer is shown in movie houses when the main movie is rated PG. As for R-rated trailers, the minimum age allowed to see the movie in theaters is 13 years of age.
Meanwhile, "Fifty Shades of Grey" is expected to be a movie blockbuster, Philippine Star said. Since debuting online in Australia, James reportedly sold the book's film rights to Universal/Focus Features for $5 million before the physical book were even printed. "Fifty Shades" in books has garnered a total of $91 million worldwide in sales, breaking "Harry Potter" and Dan Brown series' records.
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