Margot Robbie's 'Barbie' movie banned in Vietnam over South China Sea map depiction, claim reports

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Warner Bros' film, due to a scene that allegedly features a map depicting Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea that are contested, according to reports. Vietnam is among the countries to have contested China's claim to almost all of the South China Sea, as per reports.

Barbie doll is a Mattel toy, and is known for typical feminine depiction, at least in its early years. The movie based on Barbie is a modern take on the doll and her boyfriend Ken. While Barbie has been played by Margot Robbie, Ken has been essayed by Ryan Gosling, who was trolled for being too old to play the (again) typical handsome boyfriend character.

Barbie's new age take has taken social media by storm for the past few months, even before its release. The Barbie movie will be released in theaters on July 21, 2023, worldwide.

The exact scene that caused the ban in Vietnam is not known yet, but a senior official said it’s the «offensive image» of China's nine-dash line. For the uninitiated, the nine-dash line is used in Chinese versions of the maps of South China Sea to depict its territorial claims. The powerful nation has been building military bases on artificial islands in the South China Sea for several years, conducting regular naval patrols. In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague had ruled against the Chinese claims in the South China Sea, but Beijing paid no heed to the judgment.

Apart from Barbie, the other films banned by Vietnam for featuring the nine-dash line include DreamWorks’ animated film Abominable (2019), Sony’s Uncharted (2022) and