‘Offensive’: Wild reason country banned new Barbie movie

The nation introduced that the new pink manufacturing, which was set to reach in cinemas later this month, received’t now be proven because of a scene that featured a map of the extremely contested South China Sea.

A Vietnamese senior official mentioned the film contained an “offensive image” of the so-called “nine-dash line”, a U-shaped boundary utilized in Chinese maps as an instance China’s very contentious declare over virtually all the very important physique of water.

China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims of the place nationwide boundaries lie within the South China Sea. In 2016, a global tribunal dominated in opposition to China’s declare, however Beijing didn’t recognise the judgment.

China has continued to construct navy installations within the South China Sea together with on islands claimed by different nations.

“We do not grant license for the American movie Barbie to release in Vietnam because it contains the offensive image of the nine-dash line,” Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a authorities physique in command of licensing and censoring overseas movies, instructed Vietnam’s state newspaper, Tuoi Tre.

It’s unclear which scene incorporates the picture, or why a map of the South China Sea seems in a film a couple of well-known doll within the first place.

Barbie isn’t the primary movie to be banned in Vietnam for that includes the nine-dash line.

In 2019, the DreamWorks animated movie Abominable was pulled for a similar purpose. Three years later, the Sony motion film Uncharted additionally fell foul.

Two years in the past, Australian spy drama Pine Gap was faraway from the Vietnamese market by Netflix, following a grievance from authorities.

Directed by Greta Gerwig, Barbie might be launched in Australia on July 20. The family-friendly movie might be slightly below two hours lengthy.