Barbie won’t be banned in the Philippines after all, following a week-long review by local censors and government officials, although a scene with a controversial map of the South China Sea might be blurred for release.
The Warner Bros film, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, will be released in the Philippines on July 19 as originally planned.
Censors were concerned by a scene with a map of the South China Sea that was thought to be displaying the “nine-dash line”, representing China’s territorial claims, that is contested by several governments in the region.
The map scene previously got the film banned in Vietnam. The Philippines Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) said it finally concluded that the “cartoonish map” shown in the film was not intended to portray the nine-dash line.
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