The ‘Barbie’ movie has been banned in Vietnam
The governmental arm of cinema in Vietnam has banned the upcoming Greta Gerwig movie Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, due to concerns over an outdated map scene.
The film was set to arrive in the south-east Asian country on July 21st, but now the highly-anticipated satirical comedy will no longer be screened, as per the wishes of the director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department.
Gerwig’s movie features a scene in which a map is shown with a “nine dash line”, which is said to represent the territorial claims of China in the South China Sea, and the Vietnamese authorities believe this undermines its sovereignty.
Vi Kien Thanh, the director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, recently revealed that the Barbie ban is the decision of the National Film Evaluation Council.
Several Asian countries, including Vietnam, have contested the territorial claims of China for many years. In 2016, the United Nations decided that the “nine dash line” should not be considered valid.
The Vietnamese newspaper Tuoi Tre cites Vi Kien Thanh (via Variety), saying, “We do not grant license for the American movie Barbie to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line.”
The “nine dash line” has previously been the cause of other movies being banned, including DreamWorks’ Abominable and Uncharted. The former film’s use of the “nine dash line” was not spotted initially and was later pulled from cinemas.
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