The film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling will not be released in the Asian country for an unexpected reason.
Barbiethe movie of Greta Gerwig and starring margot robbie and ryan gosling got a surprise in Vietnam, where it was banned from release for a rather unexpected reason.
As revealed by the Deadline portal, the film includes a map in one scene showing the nine point line, a geographical delimitation put by China in which they delimit territory of the South China Sea and that Vietnam does not recognize. Within that territory are the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands, disputed by several countries. The matter reached the court in The Hague, but China refuses to budge.
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Warner Bros.
For the government of Vietnam, this line is “an offensive image” and has been the reason given to withdraw Warner Bros.’s license to release Barbie in the country, despite the fact that its premiere was to take place on July 21, as in much of the world.
Vi Kien Thanhdirector general of the Vietnam Film Department at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said Monday that the ban was decided by the National Film Evaluation Council.
“We do not license the American film ‘Barbie’ to be released in Vietnam because it contains the offensive image of the nine-dash line,” the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper said, also citing Vi Kien Thanh.
Similar depictions of the Nine Point Line have previously caused problems for multiple Vietnamese movies and TV series.
DreamWorks’ animated film “Abominable” was banned for the same reason in 2019, and Sony’s “Unchartered” met the same fate last year.. Exhibitor CGV was fined for showing “Abominable,” and Vietnam Film Department staff were disciplined for failing to promptly detect offending images. The film was pulled after just over a week in theaters.
In 2020, the series “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” and “Madam Secretary” were told to remove scenes containing the map. Meanwhile, in 2021, Netflix was ordered to pull the Australian spy drama “Pine Gap” from the Vietnamese market.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
