Tokyo cinema drops Japan-set docu "The Cove"

Gavin J. Blair Reuters 4 Jun 10;

TOKYO (Hollywood Reporter) - The first cinema due to show "The Cove" in Japan has bowed to pressure from right-wing protest groups and pulled the documentary from theaters.

A movie theater in Shibuya, central Tokyo, had planned to start showing the Oscar-winning, anti-dolphin-hunting film beginning June 26.

According to Unplugged, the distributor, Theater N, has been inundated with phone complaints. A small but vociferous nationalist group has been protesting at the distributor's office and outside the home of the president of the company.

The film exposes the sale and slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.

"It's unfortunate that a few extremists scared one of the Tokyo venues from showing 'The Cove,' but I'm confident that the Japanese people will now be even more curious to know what these few people are trying so hard to hide. The extremists themselves are scared of the truth being known because what they are trying to hide cannot survive debate," director Louis Psihoyos said in a statement.

Unplugged says that at this time other cinemas nationwide still plan to show the documentary this summer.

Dolphin hunt film screenings cancelled in Tokyo
Reuters 5 Jun 10;

TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo screenings of "The Cove," an Oscar-winning documentary about a grisly annual dolphin hunt have been canceled over planned protests by conservatives who say the film is anti-Japanese, the distributor said on Saturday.

The film, which picked up an Oscar for best documentary feature this year, follows a group of activists who struggle with Japanese police and fishermen to gain access to a secluded cove in Taiji, southern Japan, where dolphins are hunted.

Directed by former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos and featuring Ric O'Barry, a former dolphin trainer from the "Flipper" television series, "The Cove" has prompted activists to threaten street demonstrations.

Planned showings of the film at two cinemas in Tokyo this month have been canceled because of fears the protests might inconvenience movie-goers and others, according to Unplugged, the Japan distributor.

Screenings at one Osaka theater have also been called off, but Unplugged is still in negotiations to show the movie at 23 venues around the country this summer, said a spokeswoman for the company, who asked not to be named.

Unplugged has received threatening phone calls and protesters have gathered outside its offices, she said.

"'The Cove' is absolutely not an anti-Japanese film," Takeshi Kato of Unplugged said in a faxed statement. "I believe a deep and constructive debate is needed about the content of the film."

O'Barry, who is set to visit Japan from June 8, said Japanese film-goers should be allowed to see the documentary.

"It's not right that a small minority of extremists could take this right away from them," he said in a statement. "To do so is a clear threat to democracy."

The film was shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year, but has yet to be made widely available to the public.

Japan's government says the hunting of dolphins and whales is an important cultural tradition.

New Zealander Pete Bethune is currently on trial in Tokyo for boarding a Japanese vessel in an attempt to stop the annual whale hunt in the Antarctic.

(Writing by Isabel Reynolds; editing by Ron Popeski)