The map looks indeed ridiculous. And I don't know if the movie was trying to appeal to China, or whether it was actually some misguided sarcasm, but the whole dashed-line isn't just some small controversy. It is a big deal, if not the deal for the whole area. Just last year, Uncharted (another AAA movie I believed) was also banned by both Vietnam and Philippines.
At this point, if your movie is banned due to this issue, I don't think it was accidental anymore. This is the third hundred-million dollars movie that was banned for this reason just in the past few years.
I have no opinion on whether movie should try to avoid the issue itself, but I do think it's justifiable and non-surprising (ie. it's good) that the government bans the movie. Geopolitics is both hard and weird, and being consistent is good.
> I don't know if the movie was trying to appeal to China, or whether it was actually some misguided sarcasm
...or we could apply Hanlon's razor ("Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"). One way or the other, I imagine a poor graphics artist at Mattel Films (or whatever company was responsible for that map) is in very hot water right now...
"The White House said on Monday that recent encounters between U.S. and Chinese forces in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea reflect a growing aggressiveness by Beijing's military that raises the risk of an error in which somebody gets hurt."
That dotted line is not just a claim, it's where Chinese gunships will patrol and where Chinese bombers do exercise flights. I am actually surprised that the US government is so happy to tolerate large US companies completely undermining their own geopolitical position just to increase profits, like with Blizzard.
"The public's response, which included a boycott and a letter from United States Congress representatives to Activision Blizzard, prompted Blizzard to reduce the punishment, but not to eliminate it."
I believe what all those movies and the Blizzard incident show is that the dream of large profits from China appears to be extremely successful at influencing US companies to help with China's agenda. And the US government appears to be not too successful at preventing that. Also, there is some history w.r.t. that line in movies and on merchandise:
"In pursuit of this goal, China uses any means it can to promote the visibility of the nine-dash line, displaying it on passports, maps, exported globes, movies, books, online games, clothing, tourist leaflets, booklets, television shows, and more. A case in point—in October 2019, a nine-dash map was visible in “Abominable,” an animated family movie jointly produced by China-based Pearl Studio and America’s DreamWorks Animation. In 2018, a group of Chinese tourists wearing T-shirts with a nine-dash line drawing arrived in Vietnam."
Sounds absolutely awesome haha. Mind if I ask what your job was at the time? What were your interactions with the gun boats like? What exactly were you surveying in the Spratly Islands? Did you ever run into pirates?
> However, the outlet said, Vietnam and the Philippines aren't negligible markets, where a Hollywood hit "can earn anywhere from $5 million to over $10 million in each country."
I'm wondering if the firms already calculated that appeasing China brings in more than $10 million.
Unlike Maverick, where the scenes of the authentic jacket were ultimately worth sacrificing the entire Chinese market. That was a proper Taiwan patch though, rather than these vague dots. Respect.
'Let it be known that maps shall not contain dotted or dashed lines in the count of nine. Nine dots or dashes shall not be allowed in order to protect the sovereignty of our waters. Seven or ten is fine but not nine or dangerousely close to nine, like eight for example.'
That's a really bad map but the 8 dashed line looks more like Japan and the Philippines to me. The "handle" on the bottom right of "Asia" is then Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua in one blob to the north west of Australia
Also in the news today, the kpop band Blackpink just got into trouble for showing a map with the dotted line at a concert in Vietnam https://www.bbc.com/news/66129777
The map is obviously ridiculous to begin with so I’m curious why it couldn’t just be a bunch of Foreign Ministry staff having a laugh while flexing their diplomatic muscle a little bit. It’s not like they have many other avenues to counteract growing Chinese geopolitical influence.
Think about the easter eggs found in all manner of serious software put in by engineers for a joke. I think anyone in Vietnam can easily pirate it if they actually want to see the movie so there’s little actual damage, as long as they don’t care about the economic impact at the box office.
It's not about what people in Vietnam see and how much money it loses. It's about message it sends, you can't simply push an agenda and get away with it.
What exactly is this controversy about? There's a claim that a map in the trailer shows the 9-dash line, but I read the article, and looked at the screenshot shown in the article, and all I see behind the girl is a bunch of colorful blobs that don't resemble any world map I've ever seen.
The map is ridiculous, there is absolutely zero reason to put such a line there, and the intent is completely obvious to anyone who is aware of the situation.
Exactly my thoughts. These censors have much more imaginations than we have. The best I could see is actually a 8 (not 9) dash line right of "Asia" and below a hashtag (whatever that is)
Perhaps this is a highly sensitive topic in Southeast Asia and even an oblique, plausibly deniable allusion to it comes across very offensively. There are similarly highly sensitive topics in the US.
There's also a dashed line coming off of, Greenland is it? I'm not aware of anything that might refer to... Maybe the person who drew that map intended to evoke possible routes with those dashed lines.
Something nobody over here cares about (or nobody that matters cares about) scribbled down like a 4 year old just got the executives infinite social credit points and a $100 million dollars.
And Beijing doesn't even notice this is the most insulting way to cater to them, that’s so funny.
Reminds me of that time an American got the nearest nomads to watch some oil for a moment and then split the proceeds with them for the next 60 years while the nomads got to run a sovereign monarchy with all the money. Americans dgaf! Goated.
[+] [-] NhanH|2 years ago|reply
The map looks indeed ridiculous. And I don't know if the movie was trying to appeal to China, or whether it was actually some misguided sarcasm, but the whole dashed-line isn't just some small controversy. It is a big deal, if not the deal for the whole area. Just last year, Uncharted (another AAA movie I believed) was also banned by both Vietnam and Philippines.
At this point, if your movie is banned due to this issue, I don't think it was accidental anymore. This is the third hundred-million dollars movie that was banned for this reason just in the past few years.
I have no opinion on whether movie should try to avoid the issue itself, but I do think it's justifiable and non-surprising (ie. it's good) that the government bans the movie. Geopolitics is both hard and weird, and being consistent is good.
[+] [-] rob74|2 years ago|reply
...or we could apply Hanlon's razor ("Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"). One way or the other, I imagine a poor graphics artist at Mattel Films (or whatever company was responsible for that map) is in very hot water right now...
[+] [-] fxtentacle|2 years ago|reply
https://www.reuters.com/world/china-russia-launch-joint-air-...
That dotted line is not just a claim, it's where Chinese gunships will patrol and where Chinese bombers do exercise flights. I am actually surprised that the US government is so happy to tolerate large US companies completely undermining their own geopolitical position just to increase profits, like with Blizzard.
"The public's response, which included a boycott and a letter from United States Congress representatives to Activision Blizzard, prompted Blizzard to reduce the punishment, but not to eliminate it."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzchung_controversy
I believe what all those movies and the Blizzard incident show is that the dream of large profits from China appears to be extremely successful at influencing US companies to help with China's agenda. And the US government appears to be not too successful at preventing that. Also, there is some history w.r.t. that line in movies and on merchandise:
"In pursuit of this goal, China uses any means it can to promote the visibility of the nine-dash line, displaying it on passports, maps, exported globes, movies, books, online games, clothing, tourist leaflets, booklets, television shows, and more. A case in point—in October 2019, a nine-dash map was visible in “Abominable,” an animated family movie jointly produced by China-based Pearl Studio and America’s DreamWorks Animation. In 2018, a group of Chinese tourists wearing T-shirts with a nine-dash line drawing arrived in Vietnam."
https://amti.csis.org/science-journals-a-new-frontline-in-th...
That means in my opinion, this is mostly the CCP showing off their political clout. "Look we can make them include our line!"
[+] [-] defrost|2 years ago|reply
Fun times, got stopped by gun boats from multiple nations, swamped by monsoon, had to listen to a nerous BP observer bang on about pirates.
For background:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spratly_Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spratly_Islands_dispute
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line
[+] [-] xNeil|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cornfutes|2 years ago|reply
I'm wondering if the firms already calculated that appeasing China brings in more than $10 million.
[+] [-] sundvor|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ainiriand|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] King-Aaron|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 2-718-281-828|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|2 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] comprev|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] helsinkiandrew|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] willvarfar|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akiselev|2 years ago|reply
Think about the easter eggs found in all manner of serious software put in by engineers for a joke. I think anyone in Vietnam can easily pirate it if they actually want to see the movie so there’s little actual damage, as long as they don’t care about the economic impact at the box office.
[+] [-] slashtab|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chabad360|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ratg13|2 years ago|reply
If your base requirement is that propaganda be obvious, you’re never going to be able to discern propaganda when you see it.
If you were inserting the nine dash line into a map like this, you would want some plausible deniability.
It’s not about the number of dashes, it’s about what the depiction is meant to represent.
[+] [-] midoridensha|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throw__away7391|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WinstonSmith84|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nathias|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NicoJuicy|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] irrational|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lordnacho|2 years ago|reply
Why would a random dashed line be the one they don't like to talk about?
[+] [-] philwelch|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tehnub|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chaostheory|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hsjqllzlfkf|2 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] yieldcrv|2 years ago|reply
Something nobody over here cares about (or nobody that matters cares about) scribbled down like a 4 year old just got the executives infinite social credit points and a $100 million dollars.
And Beijing doesn't even notice this is the most insulting way to cater to them, that’s so funny.
Reminds me of that time an American got the nearest nomads to watch some oil for a moment and then split the proceeds with them for the next 60 years while the nomads got to run a sovereign monarchy with all the money. Americans dgaf! Goated.