Malaysia joins the countries that banned the screening of DreamWorks’ animated film “Abominable” after the film studio decided not to cut a scene showing China’s “nine-dash line”.
United International Pictures Malaysia (UIP Malaysia), the movie distributor, confirmed the airing of the movie nationwide has been cancelled.
“Universal Pictures (parent company of DreamWorks) has decided not to make the cut, and hence (are) unable to release (the movie) locally out of respect to the local censor board ruling,” a UIP Malaysia spokesperson said.
Reports in local papers said the Malaysia’s Film Censorship Board ordered the removal of a scene in which a map of China with the controversial “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea is visible.
The local censors gave approval for the screening in Malaysia under the condition that the controversial map is removed from the films.
Vietnam and other countries bordering the South China Sea were angered about the map in the movie which is a co-production of DreamWorks and a Chinese animation studio, Pearl Studio.
According to NPR, “Abominable” was designed to appeal to Chinese audiences, it’s not doing very well at the box office there.
The Chinese-American-made film depicts a map that supports China’s long-disputed claims that it owns a specific portion of the South China Sea.
It shows the nine-dash line which refers to Beijing’s territorial claim over large parts of South China Sea.
The scene prompted Vietnam’s Culture Ministry’s cinema department to stop showing the film.
The nine-dash line is a vague and broken demarcation line around the resource-rich waters that China claims as its own territory.
The Philippines also called for the scene to be cut.
The movie is about teenagers discovering a Yeti on the roof of their apartment, setting Yi and her two friends to embark on an epic quest to reunite the magical creature with its family.
They must stay one step ahead of a wealthy financier and a determined zoologist who want to capture the beast for their own gain.
The attempt brings the teenagers and the Yeti on a 2000-miles journey from the streets of a Chinese city to the breathtaking Himalayan snowscapes.
But China had to spoil the fun with a political claim on the South China Sea that belongs to all the countries bordering the disputed seas! /TISG