Philippine censors have allowed the Barbie film to be shown in the country’s cinemas after asking its Hollywood distributor to blur lines on a brightly coloured drawing of a world map allegedly showing China’s claims to the disputed South China Sea. The fantasy comedy film about the famous doll, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is to open in the south-east Asian nation on 19 July. After reviewing the film twice and consulting foreign affairs officials and legal experts, the government’s movie and television review…
Tag: Barbie
Studio defends Barbie movie after controversial map prompts Vietnam ban
Warners Bros has described a map that appears in its coming Barbie movie as a “child-like crayon drawing” with no intended meaning, after Vietnam said it would ban the film after claiming the map depicted the disputed South China Sea. The Barbie movie provoked controversy in both Vietnam and the Philippines over its inclusion of the map that apparently features China’s “nine-dash line”. The line marks China’s claim to much of the South China Sea – a demarcation opposed by Vietnam and other south-east Asian countries and which was repudiated…