Netflix has often landed in hot waters, with governments demanding to remove movies and shows from its streaming platform. They have had to take films and shows down in the past, their motto of entertainment not reaching all audiences. Although films are said to possess the incredible power of change, sometimes they it’s more about the unintended scenes that stand against common political belief. And recently, something similar happened in Vietnam. The country’s Cinema department banned the release of the Warner Bros. film Barbie in its country.

Just days following that announcement, Netflix had to take down a series from its platform. The streaming giant announced the removal of a Chinese series in the region, citing reasons similar to the ban of Barbie. 

The Nine-Dash Line controversy caused Netflix removal after Barbie ban

One might wonder what exactly leads to banning films and series in a country. Is it just political or religious beliefs? Or perhaps some forms of physical expression that hurts the conservationists. Well, this time in Vietnam it was the Nine-dash Line controversy. As a consequen, the Chinese series Flight to You got pulled down in the Vietnamese region of Netflix. It was based on this same controversy, joining Barbie. 

According to the report by VN Express, a Netflix spokesperson said that they decided to pull out the whole show from Netflix due to some details in the episodes being prohibited by Vietnamese law. Both Flight to You and Barbie contained scenes of a world map with a nine-dash line near the South China Sea. Some scenes in the series hurt their country’s idea of sovereignty. 

These bans are nothing new, however. In the past, the government has banned several movies and series in the country. 

Blockbusters banned on Vietnam screens

Earlier in 2022, the country banned Tom Holland’s Unchartered on the similar controversy of the wrong map. It also banned the animated Abominable and fined them with $7,193 on the same grounds. The Hunger Games made it to the list too, getting banned because of the theme of the movie. Reportedly, the portrayals of violence were closely linked to the war-time tragedies that occurred in Vietnam. On the other hand, the famed American animated sitcom, Family Guy, was banned on the grounds of offensiveness and indecency.

And following the ban of Greta Gerwig’s latest blockbuster that the world awaits to release in theatres, Warner Bros. released a statement. They denied any political motive behind the scene and said that the map scene in the movie was just simply a child-drawn map. 

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