After 36 years, the sequel to the Tom Cruise movie classic “Top Gun” is a critical and commercial success, earning $248 million at the global box office on its opening weekend. In Taiwan, it’s also being celebrated for another reason: not pandering to China.
In 2019, the trailer for “Top Gun: Maverick” showed Cruise’s character, U.S. Navy pilot Pete Mitchell, in the same bomber jacket he wore in the original film. But two of its flag patches — representing Japan and the Republic of China, the official name for Taiwan — appeared to have been replaced by other emblems.
The move was criticized at the time as an act of self-censorship to please China’s censors. Beijing sees Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy of 24 million people, as an inalienable part of its territory and lashes out at any reference to it as a sovereign nation.
On the film’s release last month after a two-year pandemic delay, both flags had been restored. At an advance screening in Taipei, the audience broke out in cheers and applause at the sight of the Taiwanese flag on the big screen, local news outlet SETN reported.
The Paramount Pictures film has broken box office records in Taiwan, raking in over 100 million Taiwan dollars ($3.4 million) in its opening week.
Taiwanese moviegoers said they were heartened by the flag’s appearance.
“The R.O.C. flag has always been suppressed by China all over the world. Of course it is both surprising and a joy to see the R.O.C. flag in a Hollywood blockbuster,” Rex Hsu, a software engineer from Taoyuan, told NBC News. “I sincerely hope the world can see more of the R.O.C. flag, so that we are not isolated from this world.”
Hollywood frequently abides by Beijing’s sensitivities to gain access to and reap profits from the lucrative Chinese market. Last year, “Fast & Furious” actor John Cena apologized profusely in Mandarin to his Chinese fans for calling Taiwan a country during a publicity tour for the latest film in the franchise. (NBC)