MOVIES - April 14, 1988

Government censors in Thailand have snipped out parts of “The Last Emperor” for fear of offending China, a film distributor in Bangkok said Tuesday. The National Censor Board ordered the cuts a week after the popular film opened in five Bangkok theaters on Feb. 16--according to Thai distributor Nukul Jarotoke. However, a government censor denied making any cuts. The snipped 25 minutes included scenes showing Chinese officials harshly interrogating the former emperor at a detention center and Red Guards later taunting his former prison mentor. In Japan, the film is playing to full houses after a distribution company there restored 40 seconds of newsreel footage it had previously cut from the film.