Banned movies, banned movies

I was planning to go see a Vietnamese movie in theaters when I heard that the production company had asked to stop showing the movie to protect the main actor from public criticism. It’s a bit of a shame because it’s not always possible to “catch” a Vietnamese movie that isn’t a slapstick comedy.

The film is about Vietnamese women in feudal society, specifically life under polygamy and male chauvinism, where women are seen as tools to maintain the race and their status in the family as well as in society is determined by the gender of the children they give birth to. There would be nothing worth mentioning if the film did not have hot scenes and the main actress of the film was not a 12-year-old girl at the time the film was made. After 4 days of domestic screening, the director personally asked to withdraw the film from theaters to protect the child actress from public criticism. Before that, the film had been purchased for theatrical release by more than 20 countries around the world and won international awards, receiving high praise from experts on prestigious film review sites.

I think those who speak out against using actors under 18 years old for 18+ scenes have their reasons. If I were the girl’s mother, I would definitely not agree to let my child do those scenes. But I’m not the girl’s mother, and neither are netizens. We have the right to disagree, and there are many ways to express that disagreement in a civilized way. For example, don’t buy a movie ticket (and don’t watch the leaked version online for free to boycott it). Note that the movie has “passed” the censorship process to be allowed to be shown, and the censorship of movies in our country is not lax. Many Vietnamese blockbusters have been “choked” to death by censorship in the beginning, but being “choked” to death by the public like this is probably the first time.

Personally, I don't worry much about the negative effects of hot scenes in movies on children, in the context of the sensitive topic of pedophilia as it is today. Not everything negative that we don't mention or avoid will automatically turn into something positive, especially issues related to gender and sexuality. Instead of sitting around arguing about a movie that reflects social reality from an artistic perspective (obviously no one criticized the hot scenes in the movie for being explicit and offensive), we should spend that time teaching our children about contraception and safe sex. Because movies can be censored and banned, but it's very difficult for our children.