The highly anticipated ‘Barbie’ movie has been the topic of many popular trends world wide – but Vietnam’s decision to ban the film hits the headlines
Now Warner Bros. tries to clarify his intention.
The film, directed by Greta Gerwig, was scheduled to hit theaters within the country on July 21, aligning with its big-screen release in most countries world wide.
Nevertheless, Vietnam announced that the film wouldn’t be released as a consequence of a scene that contains a map that uses a “nine-dash line” – a set of line segments representing China’s territorial claims within the South China Sea – which Vietnam claims violates its sovereignty.
However the studio rejects the necessity for controversy.
“The map in Barbie Land is a baby’s crayon drawing,” a spokesperson for Warner Bros. Film Group Variety said. “The doodles depict Barbie’s imaginary journey from Barbie Land to the ‘real world’. It wasn’t intended to make any statement.”
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The map depicted within the video is seemingly made by a baby – complete with scribbled dolphins and hashtags floating within the water – and is seen just as Barbie is having an existential crisis and contemplating embarking on a journey to the “real world”. “
While many saw it as “a line with nine dashes”, one source said the lines represent “travel lines” – dashes often used to represent where a personality has traveled or returned to on a map.
The U-shaped line, which first appeared on maps in 1947, covers parts of what Vietnam considers its continental shelf, where it has granted oil concessions.
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This line is extremely controversial as a lot of China’s neighbors – including Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam – have competing and overlapping territorial claims, and China’s territory is disputed.
“We don’t license US film Barbie to air in Vietnam since it comprises an offensive image of a nine-line dash,” state newspaper Tuoi Tre wrote, citing Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema. reported Reuters.
Vi Kien Thanh said the choice was made by the National Film Rating Board.
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Texas Senator Ted Cruz also criticized the upcoming film for holding what his office called Chinese communist propaganda.
“I believe Barbie is made in China…” Senator tweeted.
“China wants to regulate what Americans see, hear and ultimately think and is using its huge movie markets to force American firms to push [Chinese Communist Party] propaganda – identical to the movie Barbie seems to have done with the map,” a representative from Cruz said the Every day Mail.
Barbie isn’t the primary film to have problems with its release in Vietnam amid the “nine strokes” dispute.
In 2019, DreamWorks’ “Abominable” was banned for a similar reason, while Sony’s “Unchartered” was banned last yr.
TV series “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” and “Madam Secretary” were as a consequence of remove some scenes containing the map in 2020, and Netflix needed to remove Australian spy drama “Pine Gap” from streaming in Vietnam in 2021.
“Barbie” within the lead role Margot Robbie i Ryan Goslingwill debut in US theaters on July 21.