MTRCB allows ‘Barbie’ to screen in PH, finds no depiction of 9-dash line 

MANILA, Philippines – The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) has allowed the screening of Barbie in the Philippines despite calls to ban the movie due to its depiction of China’s nine-dash line.

In a press release on Wednesday, July 12, the MTRCB said that the movie does not depict the nine-dash line.

“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,'” the statement read. 

“Instead, the map portrayed the route of the make-believe journey of Barbie from Barbie Land to the ‘real world’ as an integral part of the story.”

Barbie has been given a Parental Guidance (PG) rating, which requires adult supervision for viewers below 13 years old.

The MTRCB also stated that in reviewing the movie, they had conducted “two review sessions, thorough deliberations, and consultations with relevant government agencies, including a legal expert on the West Philippine Sea.”

The board added that sanctions and bans would be in place for films that “exhibit the ‘nine-dash line'” as they have already done so in the past. Previously, the MTRCB removed the movie Uncharted from cinemas in 2022 and asked Netflix to pull episodes from the show Pine Gap in 2021 due to their depictions of the nine-dash line.

The MTRCB’s decision to screen Barbie with a PG rating came amid controversy regarding its depiction of the nine-dash line in a map, with Vietnam moving to ban the movie for the same reason. 

Senator Risa Hontiveros earlier released a statement, saying, “The movie is fiction, and so is the nine-dash line.”

Warner Bros. later responded to the backlash, claiming that the map was meant to be “childlike” and “not intended to make any type of statement.”

The u-shaped nine-dash line is included on Chinese maps to illustrate what it claims as its territory in the South China Sea, encroaching on the exclusive economic zones or EEZs of five ASEAN coastal states, including the Philippines.

An arbitral tribunal ruled that the line is invalid seven years ago, on July 12, 2016. 

Directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, Barbie is set to open in Philippine theaters on July 19. – with reports from Pie Gonzaga/Rappler.com

Pie Gonzaga is a Rappler intern.