"The Cove" - NHK coverage

[Junkerman John]

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

Apologies for this long post. But the launch of this film will  
continue to refract light on Japan in the days to come.


On Jul 7, 2010, at 2:37 PM, Michael Goldberg wrote:

> 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."
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> I wonder if others on the list had a chance to catch the program,  
> and what their thoughts are on how NHK handled it.
>

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