Sony’s “Uncharted” will not open in Vietnam after the country’s department of cinema banned it for containing a map that favors China’s claims over areas in the South China Sea.
The image of the map in the film concerns the so-called “nine-dash line,” an area of reefs in the South China Sea that is rich with oil and other natural resources — and the subject of a long-running dispute between China and Vietnam despite being part of Vietnam’s continental shelf.
“The film was banned from distribution after we watched it and found it contained an illegal image of the infamous nine-dash line,” the state-run Vietnam News Agency reported (via Reuters) based on comments by Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films.
Reps for Sony did not respond to a request for comment.
Vietnam previously banned the 2019 animated film “Abominable” and asked Netflix to make changes to a series last year called “Pine Gap” for the same reason.
“Uncharted” is scheduled to open in China on Monday. Director Ruben Fleischer’s action film, based on the popular video game franchise starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, has already earned $301.3 million globally.
