MANILA – The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) 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 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,” MTRCB said in its letter to Sen. Francis Tolentino, who sought the banning of the film.
MTRCB 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.”
“We have similarly sought the opinion of a legal expert on the West Philippine Sea during the deliberations in order to gather as much resources to arrive with a fully-informed decision regarding this matter,” MTRCB explained.
The movie “Barbie” was recently banned in Vietnam due to scenes that supposedly feature a map with the 9-dash line, which represents China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
According to an exclusive report from Variety, the representative of the film group stated that the inclusion of the map in the movie was not meant to convey any specific message.
“The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing. The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the ‘real world.’ It was not intended to make any type of statement,” the spokesperson for the Warner Bros. Film Group said.
This confirms that Vietnam’s ban was based on that trailer screengrab, which shows 8 dash lines and also appears to be trail markers on the left. I was under the impression that they had access to the film itself and saw a different scene we weren’t privy to.
Good for MTRCB in reviewing the film objectively. The nine dash lines in the other movies were more blatant while this was a huge stretch (scrotum over a timpani drum levels).
