Vietnam Bans ‘Uncharted’ Movie Over Map

Tom Holland stars in the movie “Unchartered” (archives).

ATS

Vietnam has banned the film ‘Uncharted’ because of scenes showing a map showing Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea. The geographical delimitation represented, known as the “nine-dotted line”, is specific to China.

This defines Beijing’s claims to these disputed waters, over which Hanoi has rival claims. The Hollywood film, starring actors Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas, was scheduled for release in Vietnam on March 18.

“During the examination of the film, the national rating and classification board found that an image of the nine-dotted line appeared in the film,” the director of the Vietnamese film department told the media on Saturday. ‘Zing State. “Therefore, this film will be banned from screening.”

Precedents

On the film’s official Facebook page, Vietnamese netizens left critical comments regarding the card. For example: “Hoang Sa Truong Sa belongs to Vietnam!”, in reference to the disputed islands Paracels and Spratleys.

This territorial dispute has already had consequences for other films in the recent past in Vietnam. In the 2018 American romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians”, a scene was cut in the country, because it showed a branded bag, with a map showing the disputed islands in the South China Sea under the control of Beijing.

A year later, Hanoi pulled the DreamWorks animated film “Abominable” from the screens for the same reason. Then last year, Netflix had to remove episodes of its “Pine Gap” series for similar scenes.

The South China Sea, home to valuable oil and gas deposits in particular, is the subject of competing sovereignty claims. Several of China’s neighbors fear that Beijing is seeking to extend its hold there.

ATS