The theatrical release of the American blockbuster, scheduled for July 19 in the archipelago, is maintained on the condition of blurring a scene.
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Vietnam says no, the Philippines may respond. This Wednesday, July 12, the Philippine censorship authorities declared that they had authorized the screening of the blockbuster Barbie in theaters, provided the Hollywood distributor blurs a map that appears to espouse contentious Chinese claims in the South China Sea. In early July, Vietnam announced that it was refusing to broadcast Greta Gerwig’s new film for the same reason. The Hollywood comedy about the famous doll, played by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, should be released in the archipelago on July 19.
Competing claims in the South China Sea
After reviewing the film twice and consulting with foreign affairs officials and legal experts, the government’s Film and TV Screening and Classification Commission said it would allow the film to be screened. Filipino censors have looked into Barbie after the ban on the feature film in Vietnam, due to scenes featuring a map on which appears to appear “the nine-dotted line”, which China uses to justify its contentious territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims nearly all of the South China Sea, where other Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, have competing territorial claims. But after watching the movie “meticulously”Filipino censors said the “cartoon card” did not represent “the nine-dotted line” but the itinerary of Barbie’s imaginary trip to the “real world”explained the censorship commission in a press release.
Blur the dots
“We have not hesitated in the past to sanction filmmakers, producers and distributors for having shown “the nine-dotted line” fictitious in their documents”, the commission added. Censors said they asked Hollywood studio Warner Bros to “blur” the controversial dotted lines on the map. Drawn ‘like a child’, they appear in several places on the map of territories meant to represent Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia, say censors . The commission found only eight dotted lines on the map supposed to draw the“Asia”. Contacted by AFP, Warner Bros did not respond immediately.