Vietnam bans Tom Holland film over China's 'nine-dash line'

Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the ban on Ruben Fleischer's "Uncharted" was decided by the National Film Evaluation Council. The action movie was supposed to hit Vietnamese theaters on March 18.

The "nine-dash line" has been used by China to illegally claim huge swathes of the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea. It has been internationally condemned and rejected.

"Uncharted" joins the ranks of several international films and series with the "nine-dash line" caught in official crosshairs. In 2019, the CGV film distributor got fined VND170 million ($7,430) for showing animation movie "Abominable" with the "nine-dash line". The film had been in theaters for 10 days before it was pulled. Several members of the cinema department were reprimanded for having approved the film in the first place.

In July last year, Netflix Vietnam also had to remove eight episodes of the "Pine Gap" series due to images of the "nine-dash line". Earlier in 2020, the "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" and "Madam Secretary" series also had several scenes removed due to similar images.

"Uncharted", based on a video game series of the same name developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, stars Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, with Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle and Antonio Banderas in supporting roles. Holland plays Nathan Drake, a fortune hunter recruited by Wahlberg's Victor Sullivan to find a treasure of the Magellan expedition.