Hong Kong  - A gory World War II action movie by Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino has been cut to avoid upsetting squeamish Hong Kong viewers, a news report said Friday.

Inglourious Basterds starring Brad Pitt, which opened in the city of 7 million Thursday, had three particularly graphic scenes removed, the South China Morning Post reported.

The offending scenes showed a dead German being scalped, a brief close-up of a finger invading an open wound and another scene showing a swastika being carved into a forehead, the newspaper said.

The cuts to the Tarantino movie, who drew on his love for Hong Kong's kung fu films in his previous works Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2, are believed to have been made by distributor Edko Films.

As well as avoiding upsetting viewers, the paper said, cutting the scenes enabled the film to get a more accessible rating for the movie's Hong Kong release. (dpa)