'Monster Hunter' movie pulled from cinemas in China due to racist joke

Now you see them, now you don't. Photo: Handout

The fantasy action movie Monster Hunter has vanished from Chinese cinemas just days after its release, after a brief line of dialogue was targeted by local social media users as racist.

The movie, an adaption of a popular role-playing video game of the same name, premiered in China on Friday (Dec 4) but quickly became embroiled in online controversy, the latest example of the sensitivities of operating in the huge but heavily censored Chinese movie market.