Every Hollywood Film Playing in Philippine Theaters is Chinese Propaganda

Oh look, it's another movie banned from Philippine theaters because of a blink-and-you-miss-it two second blip showing China's nine dash line on a map.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/829853/philippines-pulls-out-uncharted-in-cinemas-for-showing-china-s-nine-dash-line-map/story/

The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) has pulled out action-adventure film "Uncharted" from Philippine cinemas due to a scene that showed China's nine-dash line map encroaching on Philippine waters.

In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the scene from the movie containing an image of China's map of the South China Sea is "contrary to national interest" prompting it to request the MTRCB to review and prohibit it from being shown in local theaters.

"Uncharted" is topbilled by actors Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg.

"In its response to the DFA, MTRCB stated that it had ordered Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. to cease and desist from exhibiting the said motion picture, unless and until they are able to remove the objectionable scenes," the DFA said.

"MTRCB further reported that Columbia has since complied with its order and has pulled out the movie from the cinemas."

"Contrary to national interest?" What a joke. This film is so far from being contrary to the national interest that it's basically tourism propaganda. The second half of this film takes place in the Philippines and shows beautiful scenery like Palawan. Of course it's all digital Hollywood magic because no principal photography was shot in the Philippines due to COVID.

I would've loved to have come and shoot in the Philippines. Unfortunately, we've been dealing with this global pandemic, so traveling was a little tricky. We sent a small crew out there to film your beautiful coastline instead, so that we can recreate it in our digital world.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/showbiz/showbizabroad/822333/tom-holland-mark-wahlberg-and-director-ruben-fleischer-on-uncharted-their-latest-action-movie/story/

I cannot think of a single major Hollywood film with stars as big as Tom Holland and Mark Whalberg where the Philippines plays a major role. 

The map with the nine dash line isn't shown until the movie is more than halfway over at the 1:10:16 mark during an Indiana Jones inspired travel sequence.

Unless you know what the nine dash line is you would never know what this map is showing. This movie was released in Philippine cinemas on February 23rd and it's only now getting pulled. That means no censor caught this when they initially reviewed it. The last time a show was censored when the nine dash line appeared on screen was the Netflix show Pine Gap and it was essential to the plot. It was necessary to be there because in the story CIA agents are monitoring China's movements. Before that the film Abominable showed the nine dash line and it was pulled from cinemas. I did not see that film but judging from the scene and the plot it would appear to not be necessary to the story.

It's rather obvious that Uncharted and Abominable added the nine dash line to please Chinese censors. It's not a geographical feature but serves to delineate China's perceived territory. Unless one is sailing in the area or monitoring it like in Pine Gap it's inclusion on a map is superfluous. 

Here are two more images from Uncharted.

Someone took a lot of time to produce this prop which is supposed to be the journal of Juan Sebastian Elcano, the man who took over after Magellan was killed by Lapu Lapu. If Spiderman's hand was not in the way we would be looking a drawing of the Battle of Mactan. 

What this really boils down to is not offense at the nine dash line but the DFA wanting to appear they are taking a stand against China. What a farce! For the past six years China has been getting more and more aggressive as the Duterte administration has done nothing but issue diplomatic complaints and allowing China to do as it pleases. Never forget that Duterte called The Hague ruling a piece of paper he could throw away. 

Perhaps DFA Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin is unaware but China is the world's biggest film market, surpassing Hollywood in terms of box office results.  Not only that but China also invests in Hollywood productions. That means every film coming out of Hollywood has to be friendly to China. Case in point the movie Moonfall which had major Chinese financial backing and paints China as a friendly ally willing to help the USA which is far from the truth.

The truth is every single Hollywood film playing in Philippine theaters is in some small way Chinese propaganda. Will the DFA be requesting Hollywood to stop plying its wares in the Philippines? Not likely.