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Theaters planning to screen controversial dolphin-hunting documentary "The Cove" from Saturday are working closely with police to develop high-alert security measures against threatened disruptions by protesters. The U.S. film, which won the 2009 Oscar for best documentary, contains secretly filmed footage of a dolphin hunt in Taijicho, Wakayama Prefecture. Twenty-four theaters have decided to screen the film, and six will begin on Saturday. Those six have vowed to cooperate with police efforts to see the opening day pass without incident.
The film's release in Japan was initially scheduled for June 26, but was canceled after several theaters withdrew from agreed screenings following forceful protests. "We won't stand for the hypocrisy and frivolity of theaters that support Westerners' anti-Japanese actions by showing such a movie," a protest group said.
Theater N Shibuya in Tokyo was one of several theaters that decided to cancel screenings in June. "We got numerous protest phone calls and received a notice saying protest activities would be staged," a staff member of the theater said. Spokespersons for Cinem@rt Roppongi in Tokyo and Cinem@rt Shinsaibashi in Osaka said they decided to cancel June screenings because, "We're concerned that the controversy would create an environment where our customers can't enjoy movies safely."
Media coverage of the uproar significantly raised public awareness of "The Cove." On June 9, soon after a media report that the film's initial release was canceled, a symposium comprising journalists and film industry figures was held in Tokyo to discuss the implications of the controversy. The venue was filled to capacity, with still more people wanting to attend. A speaker at the symposium said: "The movie has its pros and cons. But whether to show it or not is a totally different issue." Another panelist said, "People should join in the debate only after watching the movie."
Outside the venue, protesters handed out flyers objecting to the film being screened in the nation, but there were no major troubles on the day. "The Cove" director Louie Psihoyos said the controversy has attracted the attention of many Japanese people, who have become interested in knowing more about what is actually depicted in the movie. Takeshi Kato, president of Unplugged Inc., the film's distributor, said, "We've begun to get more phone calls from people supporting the screening of the film [than opposing it]."
Rising support has encouraged a total of 24 theaters across the nation to commit to screening the documentary. Protests have already been staged near Theater Image Forum in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, and Yokohama New Theatre in Yokohama, demanding that those venues cancel their scheduled screenings. The Yokohama District Court has banned a Tokyo-based protest group from making speeches near the Yokohama theater.
Police will discuss security measures for Saturday with each of the six theaters screening the film. Koyo Yamashita, manager of Theater Image Forum, said, "We'll cope with the situation, including making our own efforts to guard our theater." Yoshiyuki Hasegawa, manger of Yokohama New Theatre, said, "We're hoping to make it through the screening without causing our customers any trouble."
6810 wrote:red snotted for agreeing with Take. WTF? I stand by it. Monotheists suck.
But monotheist? Fucking great album!
Behan wrote:Come on, you are Take.
Mulboyne wrote:...about protecting "food culture"...
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:As a friend pointed out to me the other day, whaling and dolphin culling and all that other controversial shit is not about protecting food culture or whatever, but about protecting amakudari. There are countless agricultural cooperatives, food cooperatives, fishing cooperatives, associations, chambers and the like that are all headed by ex-bureaucrats and survive through government subsidies. Bureaucrats all want their turn to retire to one of these places and thus encourage their survival. People can protest for or against whatever they like, but until Japan goes broke and can no longer pay for places to put bureaucrats out to pasture, this sort of thing will continue.
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:As a friend pointed out to me the other day, whaling and dolphin culling and all that other controversial shit is not about protecting food culture or whatever, but about protecting amakudari. There are countless agricultural cooperatives, food cooperatives, fishing cooperatives, associations, chambers and the like that are all headed by ex-bureaucrats and survive through government subsidies. Bureaucrats all want their turn to retire to one of these places and thus encourage their survival. People can protest for or against whatever they like, but until Japan goes broke and can no longer pay for places to put bureaucrats out to pasture, this sort of thing will continue.
6810 wrote:How is this any different from the US, may I ask? Are you this vociferous on message boards about your own country? Or is it only Japan which pisses everyone off so much?
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:I'm not from the U.S., but agree with you that it has a bureaucracy almost as corrupt as Japan's.
My citizenship is Australian and Irish, but I have lived in neither country since the days of Bobby Sands and the Knack. Frankly, I don't know WTF is going on in either of them.
What I can say is that the cuntry taking at least 1/3rd of everything I earn is funneling it to sleazy paper pushers who promote these "national ideals" to keep themselves in cushy posts while they eat away at the pension I am paying for but will never be able to draw on.
This site is fuckedgaijin. If you have a problem with me complaining about the way Japan works compared to other cuntries, go to fuckedgringo or fuckedwog or some other site like that. I am a gaijin and I am fucked. I reserve my right to complain about how this cuntry is run.
;)"Yeah, I've been always awkward toward women and have spent pathetic life so far but I could graduate from being a cherry boy by using geisha's pussy at last! Yeah!! And off course I have an account in Fuckedgaijin.com. Yeah!!!"
Iraira wrote:You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Screwed-down Hairdo again.
Catoneinutica wrote:All animal-rights arguments aside, for anyone in Japan to the right of the Asahi, "The Cove" could just as well be titled "Kryptonite," or "A Plenitude of Pure Pwnage," so embarrassing it must be. On the one side, you've got doltish but violent fishermen and other assorted snarling buffoons, and on the other side you've got cute chix and a beatific-looking old guy who just wants redemption for what he did to Flipper. And they send the fishermen down to depths of defeat through the use of a bit of ridicule and...high-tech gadgetry of a type that would give any Son of Yamato a schtiffy were it not being used against him.
hundefar wrote:Maybe if some of the cute chicks had been naked?
hundefar wrote:There are plenty of good reasons to criticise the Taiji dolphin hunt, but somehow it all came down to dolphins are cute and clever. It had me rooting for the whalers when they slaughtered the dolphins.
Mulboyne wrote:With regard to whaling and the like, it irritates me to see people condemn "bad arguments", which they believe are alienating audiences, without acknowledging that others, including Japanese, having been making scores of different arguments - on moral, legal, economic, diplomatic and medical grounds - without making any headway either.
I come across this a good deal in my own work. I've heard it called the "Goldilocks defence", where you're told that there is in fact a perfect strategy to achieve your goal but you just haven't found it yet, probably because you don't understand Japanese people well enough.
Mulboyne wrote:I don't think "The Cove" made its case very well.
Catoneinutica wrote:For Kaori Shoji, at least, it seems to have made its case extraordinarily well:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20100625a1.html
Greji wrote:Her bona fides for the article ends in the first paragraph "..... aboard a Sea Shepherd (the renowned, independent ocean conservation society) boat....."
Yokohammer wrote:Me too.
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:I am a gaijin and I am fucked. I reserve my right to complain about how this cuntry is run.
Greji wrote:Hopefully, we won't upset Jack's delicate sense of J-culture.
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