Vietnam pulls DreamWorks' 'Abominable' film over South China Sea map (updated)

CJ CGV

14/10/2019 08:24

(Updates with more context in paragraph 3)
    By Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen
    HANOI, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Vietnam has pulled DreamWorks'
animated film "Abominable" from cinemas over a scene featuring a
map which shows China's unilaterally declared "nine-dash line"
in the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday.
    The U-shaped line is a feature used on Chinese maps to
illustrate its claims over vast expanses of the resource-rich
South China Sea, including large swathes of what Vietnam regards
as its continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions.
    Last week, sports network ESPN faced fresh criticism of its
coverage of a row between the National Basketball Association
(NBA) and China after using a map that featured the line.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N26U2HE
    China and Vietnam have been locked in a standoff since China
dispatched a vessel to conduct an energy survey in waters
controlled by Vietnam in early July.
    "We will revoke (the film's licence)," Ta Quang Dong, deputy
minister of culture, sports and tourism, was quoted as saying by
the Thanh Nien newspaper. 
    The ministry is in charge of licensing and censoring foreign
films. 
    "Abominable", about a Chinese girl who discovers a yeti
living on her roof, was jointly produced by Shanghai-based Pearl
Studio and Comcast-owned DreamWorks Animation  CMCSA.O  and was
first shown in Vietnamese cinemas on Oct. 4. 
    It was removed from cinemas on Sunday after images of the
scene with the offending map were shared widely on social media.
    A spokeswoman for CJ CGV Vietnam, Vietnam's largest cinema
chain and a unit of South Korea's CJ CGV  079160.KS , declined
to comment.
    A receptionist at the state-run National Cinema Center in
Hanoi said the culture ministry had issued an order requiring
all Vietnamese cinemas to stop showing the film because of the
map scene.
    Calls to Nguyen Thu Ha, the head of the culture ministry's
cinema department, went unanswered on Monday.
    In August, police broke up a brief protest outside the
Chinese embassy in Hanoi over the survey vessel.
    Vietnam has repeatedly accused the vessel and its escorts of
violating its sovereignty and has demanded that China remove its
ships from the area.

 (Reporting by Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen; editing by Karishma
Singh and Jason Neely)
 ((khanh.vu@thomsonreuters.com; +84 24 38259623;))