Japan Opening of ‘Barbie’ Marred by Controversy Forward of Nuclear Memorials

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Japan opening of “Barbie” was dealt further setbacks after a voice actor spoke out towards a controversial grassroots advertising and marketing motion for the hit movie and the U.S. ambassador caught flack for selling the movie on-line.

“Barbie”, which stars Margot Robbie within the title function, just lately grossed $800 million in world field workplace, helped partially by a viral “Barbenheimer” meme that paired the movie with a biopic of nuclear bomb scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer that opened on the identical time.

“Barbie” producer Warner Bros initially latched on to fan-produced memes that depicted Robbie’s Barbie with actor Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer alongside photographs of nuclear blasts.

However followers weren’t amused in Japan, which in coming days will mark the memorials of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 78 years in the past.

A #NoBarbenheimer hashtag trended on-line, prompting Warner’s Japan division to situation a uncommon public criticism of its father or mother firm, which then adopted with an apology this week.

Mitsuki Takahata, who voices Barbie within the dubbed Japanese model, posted on Instagram on Wednesday that she was dismayed upon studying of the memes advertising and marketing marketing campaign and thought of dropping out of a promotional occasion in Tokyo hyping its opening on Aug. 11.

“This incident is actually, actually disappointing,” she posted.

The media-savvy U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel posted an image of his assembly with director Greta Gerwig, however the response on-line was chilly.

“Your publish right now will get on the nerves of many Japanese, and can additional solidify their resolve to by no means go to see that film,” replied a poster often called tsuredzure on the X platform previously often called Twitter.

No Japan launch date has been introduced for “Oppenheimer”, which chronicles the creation of the atomic bomb. The movie has been criticised for largely ignoring the weapon’s destruction in Japan in the direction of the top of World Battle Two, obliterating two main cities and accounting for greater than 200,000 deaths.

(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Modifying by Chang-Ran Kim and Michael Perry)

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