(Time) The Barbie movie was meant to be for everyone. “If you love Barbie, this movie is for you,” the trailer for Warner Bros.’ summer blockbuster declares. “If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you.”
But with just weeks before the star-studded film about the titular doll was set to hit theaters, some in Southeast Asia have decided that it’s not for them.
It was announced in Vietnam on Monday that the cinematic distribution of Barbie would be banned over the display of a map that includes the “nine-dash line,” a disputed maritime border that China has controversially used to lay claim to virtually all of the South China Sea, even though it was rejected in 2016 by an international tribunal.
Authorities in the Philippines, also troubled by the promotion of the “nine-dash line,” are currently deliberating whether or not to permit the release of the film. “The movie is fiction, and so is the nine-dash line. At the minimum, our cinemas should include an explicit disclaimer that the nine-dash line is a figment of China’s imagination,” Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros said Tuesday… Read More
