Plot twist: “Barbie” is more controversial than “Oppenheimer.” Nobody predicted this.
Greta Gerwig’s upcoming doll movie has been banned in Vietnam due to the inclusion of the “nine dash line map” depicting islands in the South China Sea as being controlled by Beijing.
A single scene was enough for Vietnamese censors to nix “Barbie”. Vietnam claims the map violates its sovereignty. The UN agreed with them in 2016 as they sided with Vietnam on this map issue.
Here’s a screen capture of the scene in question:
Looks harmless enough to me, but the Vietnamese are PISSED. Some conspiracies have started to pop online over this, with some claiming that “Barbie” producers purposely included the line as China has a very large market for American films.
I’m thinking this is more a case of the “Barbie” prop artist who created this map not even thinking, for a second, about the ramifications, nor did they have any idea that the “nine dash line” even existed.
I bet more countries will likely join Vietnam in banning “Barbie.” Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan all have beef with China over this map.