The Yakuza angle is a really interesting one, actually. Are there any published articles or books about their involvement? (At any point in Japanese film history, not specifically relating to The Cove.)<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 9:06 PM, Aaron Gerow <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:aaron.gerow@yale.edu">aaron.gerow@yale.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
The Asahi reports this morning that two more theaters have decided not to show The Cove: Cinemart Roppongi and Cinemart Shinsaibashi (in Osaka). Both are owned by SPO, which gave as the reason, "The chances this would cause problems for customers and neighbors has increased." Both are theaters that buckled under to right-wing pressure and decided not to show Yasukuni.<br>
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The article says that 26 theaters signed up to show The Cove, but the distributor has been keeping the list secret for fear of demonstrations. Now 3 of those have decided not to show the film.<br>
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As for Mark's question, the reason always given in these cases is that they fear "gomeiwaku o kakeru." A Nihonjinron argument would be that this is the way Japanese are--they always are concerned about what the neighbors think and do not want to cause trouble--but I think it is as much an economic reason as any. Especially in today's Japanese film industry, where you see 10 companies collaborating to make one film, there are few companies that are truly independent: they all have economic ties to someone or another and are dependent on maintaining good relations with those companies. There are not many who want to risk those relations even if you might get one hit movie. One must also ask about the presence of the yakuza in the film industry, one that was quite pervasive for a long time, especially in exhibition. People don't talk about it much nowadays, but if the yakuza are still involved, this could explain another influence on these theaters since most of the right-wing groups have yakuza ties.<br>
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Aaron Gerow<br>
Associate Professor<br>
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Yale University<br>
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