Cartoon “Abominable” left Vietnam theaters on October 13, after being spotted by viewers with scenes showing the chinese nine-dash line.
Mr. Hoang Hai – CGV representative (film importer) – confirmed that this cartoon is no longer selling tickets. All trailers, information and showtimes are also removed from the homepage, Youtube channel of CGV and some other publishers.
Director of the Cinema Department Thu Ha said that she was responsible for the incident and coordinated with the publisher to stop showing this cartoon. “We will be more alert and cautious in future revisions,” she said. On October 14, the Department will discuss the incident.
According to a post of VnExpress, Abominable (Vietnamese title: Everest: Tiny Snowman) has been released in Vietnamese theaters since October 4. In the movie, the Chinese girl named Yi (Chloe Bennet) and two friends meet the snowman. The group helps this creature reunite with its family at Mount Everest.
After the film was released, viewers talked about the scene with the map in Yi’s house, supposedly drawing the “cow’s tongue line” (the nine-dash line – drawn by China, claiming sovereignty over nearly the entire East Sea area, despite objections from the international community). This image appears multiple times in the cartoon. Over the weekend, the audience Le Van Hiep was one of the first to discover the incident and share it on social networks.
Abominable is a product of DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studio – a Chinese company. The film’s incident is similar to that of Operation Red Sea leaving the theater last year. At that time, Chinese works also opened in theaters ten days before being identified with scenes related to sovereignty over the sea and islands.