‘Barbie’ stokes geopolitical tensions in Asia and gets banned in Vietnam. Wait, what?
UPDATE: Warner Bros. released a statement on Variety on July 6, explaining why the Great Gerwig film was banned over the controversial map:
“The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing,” a spokesperson told Variety. “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 original story is below:
For those who had “Vietnam banning screenings of writer-director Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ movie over a map” on their 2023 Bingo card, good news:
According to authorities in the Asian country, viewings of the movie starring Margot Robbie as everyone’s favorite tip-toed doll have, yes, been banned thanks to how the film depicts a map of the South China Sea.
This leads more people to ask the main question that has been surrounding the anticipated movie since Gerwig announced she was tackling the project — what in the name of Zeus’ beard is this movie even about?
Apparently, authorities say the “nine dash line” on a map shown in a scene is “a representation of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Vietnam says violates its sovereignty,” Variety reports.
“We do not grant license for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper said according to VOA News.
In layman’s terms, Vietnam, and other neighboring countries, have said boo to China’s assertions, and contest China’s claims of the sea on the map, the BBC reports.
This isn’t the first time a movie has been banned because of the dash line. The 2019 animated movie “Abominable” was banned in the country by the Department of Cinema along with Sony’s “Uncharted,” the BBC said.
This adds more mystery to what the plot of “Barbie” actually is since it’s been kept tightly under wraps since it was announced that Gerwig would be tackling it in 2016.
“People don’t have any idea what to expect [with the film], and I think that that’s the right vibe,” cast member America Ferrera told PEOPLE about about the plot. “Whatever you think it is, it’s not that. It’s something else.”
Uh, clearly.
This story was originally published July 3, 2023 at 9:18 AM with the headline "‘Barbie’ stokes geopolitical tensions in Asia and gets banned in Vietnam. Wait, what?."