Vietnam bans 'Barbie' movie over South China Sea map
www.reuters.com
Vietnam has banned Warner Bros' highly-anticipated film "Barbie" from domestic distribution over a scene featuring a map that shows China's unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday.

Barbie canonically supports China’s claims over the South China Sea.

  • azanra4@lemmygrad.ml
    33·
    1 year ago

    did you guys watch the movie? maybe I’m naive, but I don’t buy it; it feels like manufactured outrage. the “map” in question had the entire north american continent labeled as United States 💀 . Basically every landmass was hopelessly deformed because it was conveying how little barbieland actually knew about the real world. In the scene, they talk about the “Country of California” and “State of Los Angeles” or something like that…because barbie was trying to get to LA. Asia doesn’t even look like Asia! Please let me know if this just went over my head. I think people are reading too much into this nonsense. Vietnam probably banned it because it was shameless western corporate propaganda or something like that.

    • Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml
      6·
      1 year ago

      I did. I was dragged to it and surprisingly enjoyed it more than I thought.

      It obviously only got greenlit to sell merchandise, but within that the actual creators of the film worked in some unexpectedly deep commentary for what it is.

    • libscratcher@lemmygrad.ml
      23·
      1 year ago

      Can’t tell if sarcastic, but I highly doubt a Hollywood movie taking a side in a preexisting border dispute is going to derail an international trade deal

  • Nocheztli ☭@lemmygrad.ml
    24·
    1 year ago

    Is this true? It just sounds too petty to be true, I can’t believe that a random dash line that you see for 3 frames of the movie and that could as well be marked in the middle of the pacific is enough to ban the movie and cause international drama.

    • idahocom@lemmygrad.mlOP
      23·
      1 year ago

      Yeah can any Vietnamese comrades weigh in. Vietnamese people on tiktok are saying they banned it for the 9 dash line showing up in a different scene than the one in the trailer but idk.

      also sidenote: it’s nice to see that even on tiktok of all places vietnamese people are generally supportive of their own gov’t actions and aren’t doing a “freeze peaches” meltdown.

  • HaSch@lemmygrad.ml
    9·
    1 year ago

    They could have banned it for glorifying the Butcher of Lyon and that would have made more sense