Sony’s hit action adventure “Uncharted” has been banned in Vietnam over the film’s inclusion of a map that depicts China’s contested territorial claims in Southeast Asia.
The film, which stars Tom Holland, Mark Walhberg and Antonio Banderas was to have arrived in Vietnamese cinemas from March 18. Prior to this weekend, the film had grossed $278 million, according to Box Office Mojo.
Vietnamese state media announced the ban on Saturday. “The film was banned from distribution after we watched it and found it contained an illegal image of the infamous nine-dash line,” Vietnam News Agency reported. It cited Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, the government structure responsible for licensing and censoring foreign films.
Sony did not respond to Variety’s request for comment.
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The “nine dash line” loosely describes China’s claim to own most of the South China Sea as its own territory. The claimed area, which includes some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes as well as rich mineral and energy resources, extends to territory also claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, including the Paracel and Spratley Islands.
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China’s territorial claims in the area were put to the test in 2013 when The Philippines took a case to a tribunal operating under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The verdict, delivered in 2016, said that China had “no legal basis” to claim “historic rights” to the resources there and that China had not exercised exclusive control over the waters within the nine-dash line. China ignored the tribunal ruling and has instead developed coral reefs and islets into islands big enough to install military runways and weapons systems.
The disputed line has been a source of repeated problems for western media companies. In 2018, romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” was cut in Vietnam to remove a scene featuring a designer bag with a map of the world that appeared to show the disputed area under Beijing’s control.
The following year, Vietnam ordered DreamWorks’ animated film “Abominable” to be pulled from cinemas ten days into its release after viewers brought a nine dash line map to the attention of authorities. Local distributor CGV was subsequently fined. Also in 2020, series “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” and “Madam Secretary” were edited to remove similar map images.
And, last year, Netflix was forced to remove some episodes of Australian espionage series “Pine Gap,” even though the on-screen dialog described China’s claim as disputed.