Ho Chi Minh City, Nov. 19: The lights dimmed, and a hush fell over a talkative audience at the giant Galaxy threatre in this bustling city of 10 million people.

James Bond was chasing Marco Sciarra, an Italian terrorist, through the streets of Mexico City, weaving his way through processions commemorating the Day of the Dead in the Zocalo city centre, and the near-packed movie hall was soaking it in.

Vietnam has reason for discomfort with "James Bond" - a name that for two generations was synonymous with Cold War spy games - in more ways than one.

Yet, unlike India, where the censor board has found the complete version of the latest instalment of the 007 franchise, Spectre, inappropriate for Indian audiences ahead of its release tomorrow, Vietnam appears to have embraced the film.

Like many other Asian nations, Vietnam is, by western standards considered prudish about sexually explicit public displays. But the film is showing in capital Hanoi, in financial hub Ho Chi Minh City and in tourist spots like Danang, online booking sites of major Vietnamese cineplexes suggest, without any cuts, unlike India, where censors have snipped the two lovemaking scenes.

Yesterday, when a viewer at a theatre here decided to take a call in the middle of the movie - an experience Indian moviegoers are familiar with - he was hissed into embarrassed silence by his neighbours.

"Vietnam has changed, and so has Bond, actually," said Jess Nguyen, a janitor at a hostel for tourists visiting this city. "I think it's natural for Vietnamese to want to watch James Bond."

The eponymous lead character of the franchise is based on novels by Ian Fleming, who created the agent as a Cold War-era spy for Britain's secret service MI6, with goals rooted in defeating the West's enemies from that period.

Vietnam, on the other hand, celebrates its defeat of the US and its allies in the 20-year war that ended in 1975, and to this date mourns the victims of chemical weapons deployed by the US.

In Vietnam, "James Bond" is itself also a metaphor for victory. Former US Vice-Admiral James Bond Stockdale was the highest-ranking American naval officer to be held prisoner of war - for seven years - during the war.

But in the men's washroom at the Ho Chi Minh City theatre, two teenagers were mimicking Bond as they spoke to each other, fingers pointed like guns.

That's a change visible elsewhere too - in the markets where US designer labels occupy prime real estate next to the Saigon riverfront, and in Vietnam's war chest, which now includes American weaponry too.