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I did see the program and agree generally with your and Aaron's take on it. While it was sympathetic to the theaters under siege from the hysteric right-wing fringe, the overall tone was heavily weighted against the film, buying into the framing of it as insensitive to Japanese "culinary culture" and traditional fisheries. The combination of nationalist noise and decades of pro-whaling apologetics set the agenda, and "Close-Up Gendai" played into it.<div><br></div><div>The nitpicking was particularly troubling. One scene that NHK highlighted has become rather famous (because the Taiji fishermen witnessed it and tell all the reporters who come): a staged scene of a free diver standing on the shore crying, intercut with footage of a dolphin suffering prolonged death throes (which the diver says she witnessed). The staging of this scene has become a symbol of the Hollywoodesque character of the film ("They're all acting!") and the violation of standards for documentaries. It's certainly legitimate to question this scene (I personally don't think it's proper or necessary to "cheat" like that), but it's not representative of the film as a whole. </div><div><br></div><div>The other "miss" that NHK focused on was more problematic. It is a text title that appears at the end of the film, stating that a government fisheries spokesman who was interviewed extensively in the film has since been fired. It turns out he hasn't; he still works for the ministry and was upset to be misrepresented. NHK devoted several minutes of the 26 minute program to this mistake, interviewing three people (including a Skype interview with the director of the film, almost entirely devoted to the mistake). So OK, they blew it. It was careless. Again, an unforgivable violation of documentary standards? Perhaps, but it's a rather cheap way of undermining the credibility of the film's overall message.</div><div><br></div><div>This all fits a pattern that's become familiar in other contested terrain, such as Nanking and the comfort women. Nitpicking the details to discredit the entire treatment of the issue. These guys are so sloppy and unreliable, we don't have to deal with the toxic contamination of dolphin meat (and other fishes), the distress of captive dolphins in the "cute" dolphin shows, Japan's history of duplicity in the IWC, the human-centric exploitation of the sea and nature as a whole.</div><div><br></div><div>"The Cove" controversy has exposed the twisted dynamics in Japanese discourse on these kinds of issues. Fortunately, as with "Yasukuni" two years ago, the strong support for free expression has outweighed the nationalist impulse to exclude. The film has opened with negligible incident and to large audiences. It's unlikely to repeat the commercial success of "Yasukuni" (which reportedly broke the box office record for documentaries), since many people just don't want to watch dolphins being killed. But for the many thousands who will see it, it will raise issues and spark discussions that penetrate the filters that NHK and others put over the film.</div><div><br></div><div>At the same time, it raises issues that will be of interest to our list members (and there are many filmmakers who will be writing about this in the months to come). It is not an easy film for thoughtful Japanese to come to terms with. One issue is the nature of advocacy films. There is a divide between the relatively recent "Michael Moore-style" American films that combine advocacy and entertainment and the tradition of Japanese (and American, for that matter) documentaries that earn their advocacy through painstaking documentation of events as they unfold. In the NHK program, the studio guest Yoshioka Shinobu said he didn't consider "The Cove" a documentary. Another friend (the owner of the Higashi-Nakano Pole-Poleza theater) told me he didn't consider "The Cove" a film. Japanese viewers are extremely sensitive when they look at this film; they've got their hackles up. But there are things to be learned from their response, about the methods we use to tell these stories.</div><div><br></div><div>Another issue that concerns me is the Orientalist kind of approach this film takes. Aside from the government spokesman and other officials, there are no Japanese voices in the film. This is connected to the advocacy/entertainment bent of the film, but how can you make a film about a small cove on a remote peninsula in Japan and not hear a single voice of the residents of that town? It's not surprising that people conclude that you've got a big budget, Hollywood-scale film descending on a town of 4000, and the odds are skewed. The fishermen don't have a chance. This film wasn't made for a Japanese audience, but when Japanese audiences see it, they're not without reason to feel assaulted. </div><div><br></div><div>Apologies for this long post. But the launch of this film will continue to refract light on Japan in the days to come.</div><div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div><i><br></i></div></span></span> </div><br><div><div>On Jul 7, 2010, at 2:37 PM, Michael Goldberg wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Last night NHK aired a 30-minute program devoted to the controversy over screenings of "The Cove," or more specifically "controversy" regarding the film itself. I was unfortunately busy and could not watch or record the program. My wife watched most of it and gave me a (Japanese) description of what was covered. I applaud NHK wading into territory lately where rightists are involved (e.g. Nanking). The issues are nevertheless not easily digested in a 30-minute discussion format with "experts."<br><br>From what my wife summarised, there was criticism of the documentary's taking a predetermined position, and supposed "distortion of reality" of the film in editing – which I think is one of the film's strong points. It certainly saved the poor camerawork done during overnight placement of the hidden cameras, developed a good storyline, drew sympathy toward the guerrilla film crew, and built up tension Hollywood style.<br><br>There are valid critiques. However, the "mistakes" singled out on NHK were nitpicking in nature, and the "tradition" card was overplayed, IMHO. The "solution" of giving the fisherman's coop opportunity to air their side of the story was somewhat simplistic. Censorship of screenings vs the lack of "fair response" by the locals may be an issue which draws the film / artistic community to take sides. Propagandising on both sides does little to help solve the real issue of the dolphin slaughter.<br><br> I wonder if others on the list had a chance to catch the program, and what their thoughts are on how NHK handled it. <br></td></tr></tbody></table><br> </blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>