Nothing.”barbie’s world in Vietnam this summer.
The Southeast Asian country has banned the release of Greta Gerwig’s new film ‘Barbie’ for a scene containing a U-shaped dotted line on a map that marks its southern territory, the so-called nine-dash line. The China Sea, which both China and Vietnam claim as their own.
The nine-dash line is a map of China, used to denote China’s sovereignty over up to 90 percent of the South China Sea.
An international tribunal in The Hague ruled in 2016 that China’s claims had no legal basis, but the Chinese government has yet to recognize the ruling, instead claiming control of the waters and aggressive aggression. and are trying to develop military facilities.
Vietnam, which has a long and bitter relationship with China, announced on Monday that it would not release new films in the country because of the use of dialogue, said Vi Kien Thanh, head of Vietnam’s film department. The decision was made by the National Film Appraisal and Classification Commission, which is responsible for licensing and censoring foreign films in Vietnam.
Speaking to state media on Monday, Thanh admitted that the “Barbie doll” had been banned because of “the illegal image of the ‘cow tongue line’ in the film,” saying he was a popular figure in Vietnam. A nine-dash line, which is a simple expression, was used.
Vietnam PlusThe state-run newspaper wrote that the decision to include the sentence “distorts the truth, violates the law in general and violates Vietnam’s territorial sovereignty in particular.”
China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei all have claims in the South China Sea, including islands and other strategic maritime features.
Starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and many other celebrities, “Barbie” was set to open in Vietnam on July 21. Some domestic moviegoers welcomed the government’s ban. Huang Xuan Bac, a 23-year-old college student, said the creators should have known better than to include the map.
“I hope this movie fails,” he said.
This is not the first time Vietnam has banned a film containing the nine-dash line scene. Sony’s 2022 action movie “Uncharted,” starring actor Tom Holland, and DreamWorks’ 2019 animated “Abominable,” were both dropped from the national box office for the same reason.
Vo Kieu Bao Wien Contributed to a report from Vietnam.
