On July 20, 2023 comes “Barbiein cinemas in Germany – and around this date also in most of the world. Film fans on every continent are looking forward to the possible spectacle in pink – fueled by a so far very clever and engaging advertising campaign, a huge star cast led by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and director Greta Gerwig who is known for quality so far.
Alongside “Mission: Impossible 7,” which begins a week early, and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which begins at the same time, “Barbie” is one of the most anticipated movies of the summer. The competition resulting from the start dates is currently being used playfully for further advertising. Tom Cruise and Robbie, among others, have already called for not choosing one of the titles, but simply seeing all three.
That’s why “Barbie” is banned in Vietnam
However, the “Barbie” toy adaptation won’t be seen everywhere. For example, Vietnamese fans of the legendary long-legged doll look down the drain. The country’s government has now announced that the National Film Evaluation Council has banned “Barbie”. The planned cinema release on July 21, 2023 has been cancelled. The reason is a dispute about a piece of the sea and a map.
In “Barbie” you will probably see a map on which you can see the so-called nine-dash line. With this line, China has claimed large parts of the South China Sea since 2009. But other countries, such as the Philippines, are also making claims. Vietnam also sees a part of the sea areas as part of its own country.
The rendering of the line in “Barbie” is an insult, which is why the film had to be banned, according to a government official. It remains to be seen whether this will remain the only ban, or whether other countries such as the Philippines or Malaysia, which have disputes with China over parts of the sea, will resort to equally drastic measures.
“Uncharted” and Netflix series: The nine-dash line has often been a problem
But maybe that was taken into account during the film production. After all, the nine-dash line is not even recognized by the US. But Failure to do so risks exclusion from the lucrative Chinese market. It is financially better to accept a ban in a few smaller countries than to cause problems in the second most important cinema market in the world, China.
So “Barbie” is by no means the first movie to show the nine-dash line and have had problems with it. The video game adaptation “Uncharted” was also banned in Vietnam for this reason. And Netflix even scraps an entire series in the country. The Australian secret service thriller “Pine Gap” disappeared under pressure from the authorities of the streaming service in Vietnam.