The Roundup, a box-office hit in South Korea featuring Eternals actor Ma Dong-seok, has been banned in Vietnam. The action comedy, which is the eagerly anticipated sequel to the 2017 film The Outlaws, has sparked excitement throughout the globe. However, the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has refused to distribute the film due to its depiction of excessive violence.
Lotte Entertainment, which is in charge of the film’s international distribution, requested a review of The Roundup with Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism’s Film Bureau. Unfortunately for the film, this did not go well.
According to a corporate spokeswoman, The Korea Herald:
“Vietnam has banned The Roundup because it contains too many violent images.”
The brutal action-packed sequences in Ma Dong-film Seok’s are plenty. While some fans welcomed the film’s savagery and complimented the outstanding on-screen execution of its action sequences as a significant draw, the censor board of Vietnam apparently noted the same as a concern. An unidentified film industry expert told The Korea Herald that Ho Chi Minh’s representation as a chaotic city rife with a crime may have influenced the authorities’ decision.
The Roundup grossed more than $20 million in its first weekend in Korea.
Dong-Seok Ma of Ma Seok-do, the ‘beast policeman’ from Train to Busan, returned to reprise his role. He flew to Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City with his subordinate colleagues to extradite a Korean suspect. He became embroiled in a city-wide manhunt to find a psychopath responsible for the disappearances of numerous Korean residents in Vietnam.
The sequel has received accolades for its outstanding performances and has established itself as an example of a successful sequel to a very popular game. According to Variety, the film grossed $21.1 million in its first week in Korea. Furthermore, it sold over 10 million tickets, making it the first picture in three years to do so in the nation. It was also the quickest film in Korea to reach one million viewers since the epidemic began. The Roundup has sold over 12 million tickets and grossed more than $98 million at the time of writing, according to KOBIS, the Korean Film Council’s (Kofic) monitoring service.
