Fishing boats in Shanwei, South China's Guangdong Province sail out to fishing grounds in the South China Sea after the summer fishing moratorium ended on Monday. Photo: VCG

"Uncharted," Sony's latest blockbuster starring Tom Holland, has been banned from distribution in Vietnam over a scene featuring a map that showed the territories China has been holding historical rights to in the South China Sea - the nine-dash line. Vietnamese officials said the scene was "illegal," while Chinese netizens hailed to support the movie for its "fair depiction of history."

"The film was banned from distribution after we watched it and found it contained an illegal image of the infamous nine-dash line," state-run Vietnam News Agency reported, citing Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films. The action movie was supposed to hit Vietnamese theaters on March 18.

"Uncharted" is not the first international film pulled out from the Southeast country's cinema. Vietnam removed DreamWorks' animated film "Abominable" from cinemas in 2019, 10 days after it was screened.

In July last year, Netflix was also ordered 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, local media outlet the VNExpress reported. 

"Uncharted" is scheduled to hit Chinese cinemas on Monday. Chinese netizens expressed their support for the movie on China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo, saying that it has won Chinese audiences over with the map . 

The nine-dash line is China's recognition of maritime claims arising from historical practices before the formation of modern international laws of the sea. With regard to maritime disputes with relevant countries, China has always been committed to resolving them through negotiations with the countries directly concerned, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. China attaches great importance to working with ASEAN members to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, the ministry said, noting that creating tensions will not help the situation. 

Global Times