“Barbie” film fans in Vietnam will have to dream of seeing the doll from their childhoods come to life on the silver screen after the government banned the live-action movie for showing a map of China's claims to territory in the disputed South China Sea.
The fantasy-comedy film, which stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, was originally slated for a July 21 release, but it was banned from release in the communist country after the Culture Ministry’s Department of Cinema found that it contained scenes featuring China’s so-called nine-dash line, state and local media reported.
The nine-dash line covers a 3 million square kilometer “U” shape in the South China Sea, which is rich in oil and natural gas reserves. Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan claim parts of the same maritime area, and have sparred with Beijing over the broad claims to the strategic waterway, which is also home to rich fishing grounds and key commercial shipping lanes.