Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ confirmed for Philippine release despite nine-line dash map controversy
By - Jessica Willow
Written-on - July 12 2023
So the “Barbie” movie is currently one of the most anticipated shows in 2023 and a major reason for this is
Barbie super popular globally. Though there’s a lot of hype about this movie, it came with its fair share of problems and controversies.
The Nine-dash line Controversy
In this movie, there’s a world map and despite being a single scene, that cartoon-like map has singlehandedly created controversies the producers themselves didn’t foresee. Because of this map, this movie has already been banned in Vietnam. You might be asking what’s wrong with this hand drawn map. You see, this map shows the contested South China Sea as part of China. This is where the concept of the nine-dash line come in which are China’s territorial claims over the South China Sea.
Though China claims over 85% of this water body, international courts have shun this claim with other territories laying claim to parts of this water body including Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Brunei. China hasn’t given up the claim to this water body with claims of China increasing military patrols in the South China Sea. This is the reason why the map though hand drawn in a “Barbie” movie is very controversial to some of these nations.
Philippines Opinion on the matter
Apart from being banned in the Vietnam, there were thoughts about the Philippines banning the “Barbie” movie but that’s not the case in this situation. The Philippines Movie Television Review and Classification board spoke about reviewing the “Barbie” to determine whether it’s safe or not
The Philippine Movie Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB)
Recently, an update was received from The Movie Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) which has allowed the screening of the movie “Barbie” in the Philippines as it found “no clear nor outright depiction of 9-dash line” in the film. The MTRCB sent a letter to Sen. Francis Tolentino saying “The Board believes that all things considered, it has no basis to ban the film ‘Barbie’ as there is no clear nor outright depiction of the nine-dash line in the subject film”. The MTRCB also said the movie “underwent two meticulous screenings, -the second one with representatives from the department of foreign affairs and the office of the Solicitor General- in order to fully ascertain and determine if the said lines depict the nine-dash line”.
MTRCB went on explaining: “we have similarly sought the opinion of a legal expert on the west Philippines Sea during the deliberations in order to gather as much resources to arrive with a fully-informed decision regarding this matter. Considering the Context by which the cartoonish map of the character ‘Weird Barbie’ was portrayed in the film, the review committee is convinced that the contentious scene does not depict the ‘nine-dash line’. Instead, the map portrayed the route of the make-believe journey of Barbie from Barbie land to the ‘real world’ and as an integral part of the story”
MTRCB: "Rest assured that the board has exhausted all possible resources in arriving at this decision as we have not hesitated in that past to sanction filmmakers, producers and distributors for exhibiting the fictions ‘nine-dash line’ in their materials”
“The Board sternly warns all filmmakers, producers and distributors that it will not hesitate to sanction and/or ban films that exhibit the ‘nine-dash line’ for being contrary to law, pursuant to section3(c) (d) of Presidential decree No. 1986, the Republic Act No. 9522, otherwise known as the Philippine Baseline Law, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s South China Sea Arbitration Award, whose anniversary we, as a nation, are celebrating today”.
Closure
The Philippine media reported that censors have asked Warner Bros. to blur the controversial lines on the map. Maybe the line on the map wasn’t warner Bros’ intention but in 2020, China became the largest box office in the world surpassing North America along with the following year. China is a major box office market for Hollywood so if you haven’t notice, Hollywood is trying to please China by pertaining to their standards (you can notice this when looking at some Chinese movie posters). The Barbie movie will be released on July 21, 2023 in theaters globally so remember the date.
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