Censors snip Zatoichi

I caught Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi again in Bangkok theatres. I first saw it at the Bangkok International Film Festival. Anyway, the film was back in Bangkok for a wide commercial release, playing with a Thai soundtrack in most theatres, but with Japanese and Thai and English subtitles at a couple of theatres. So I was pretty excited to get to see it again. I just love this film.

However, I was dismayed that it was cut. There's a scene where the geisha boy prostitutes himself. It's a flashback linked to a scene as a grown-up where he is practicing dancing while his sister plays the uh, well, I'll just call it a banjo (with a blade hidden in the neck)!

I guess the scene was sliced because the censors were squeamish about showing child prostitution. I don't see why it needed to be cut. What are the censors protecting us from? Child prostitution and pedophilia continue to exist regardless of the censor's snips and smears. Perhaps leaving it in would have affected some people to take action against it. I doubt very much the scene would have inspired men to go out and bugger small children. They were out there doing that anyway, not watching a movie.