Vietnam upholds ban on ‘Barbie’ over China’s invalid 9-dash line
Saturday, July 08, 2023, 09:12 GMT+7
The Vietnam Cinema Department is determined to uphold its ban on the American live-action movie ‘Barbie’ for featuring a scene with a map showing China’s illicit “nine-dash line”, although Warner Bros. recently explained that it was just a child-like drawing.
Variety, an American magazine, on Thursday cited a Warner Bros. Film Group spokesperson as saying: “The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing.
“The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the ‘real world’.
“It was not intended to make any type of statement,” the spokesperson added.
Commenting on the statement made by Warner Bros., Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Vietnam Cinema Department, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday: “I haven’t received any information about the explanation from Warner Bros.
“That’s their viewpoint.
“We uphold our stance on the movie ban,” Thanh affirmed.
In addition, Thanh told the paper that he paid no heed to images associated with the ‘Barbie’ movie that are being spread on social media platforms.
According to Variety, representatives for director Greta Gerwig and Warner Bros. would not comment on plot points of the film to keep spoilers to a minimum.
This American magazine said that Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, lives in her pink dream world.
One day, she encounters an existential crisis inside the walls of her pink dream world and is encouraged to go on a journey of self-discovery and is provided with a map to “the Real World.”
‘Barbie’, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was originally set to hit cinemas in Vietnam on July 21.
It is not the first movie to be barred in Vietnam for featuring scene(s) with the illicit “nine-dash line” that China uses to illegally claim its sovereignty over most of the East Vietnam Sea.
Previously, the Southeast Asian nation had either blocked many films or removed some ones from cinemas as these movies, mainly produced by China, contain the illegal nine-dash line map.
Last year, for instance, Vietnam blocked America’s ‘Uncharted’, which stars Tom Holland, for the illicit nine-dash line.
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