MOVIES - May 4, 1987

The Seasonal Film Corp., a Hong Kong film company, has filed a civil suit seeking damages from the British colony’s government for banning a film about the Vietnam War, the company said last week. A spokesman for the company said it was challenging the government’s decision to ban “Men Without a Promised Land,” a 1980 film about prisoners of war in Vietnam. A government spokesman said the film was banned because it “promoted racial hatred” and said the government would defend its action in court. The colony’s legislature is considering a bill that would give the government the right to censor films for political reasons, following disclosure that it had been doing so for many years without authority.