Banned movies, banned movies

I was planning to go see a Vietnamese movie in the theater 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 pity 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 dominance, 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 himself asked to withdraw the film from theaters to protect the child actress from public criticism. Before that, the film had been purchased for theatrical distribution in 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 certainly would not agree to let my child do those scenes. But I am 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 manner. For example, do not buy movie tickets (and do not watch the leaked version online for free to truly boycott). 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 one 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. It's not true that if we don't mention or avoid something negative, it will automatically turn into a positive, especially issues related to gender and sexuality. Instead of arguing about a movie that reflects social reality from an artistic perspective (obviously no one criticized the hot scenes in the movie as revealing 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.