The Cove

[Christine Marran]

It seems useful somehow to pursue further how Kore'eda and Mori treated 
/The Cove /in the /Asahi/ piece Aaron mentioned.

My sense was that Kore'eda was bothered by the emotionality of the film. 
He suggests that the film is weak in its form and fails 'even as 
propaganda' for its self-indulgent righteousness of some of the players 
and/ /especially/ /its/ emotional/ /approach/ to dolphins. The 
extravagantly sentimental tone of the film seems his main problem more 
than anything else in this piece.

Filmmaker Mori in the /Asahi/ article seems interested and even pleased 
by the "entertainment" aspect of the film and while he critiqued the 
hidden camera work, Mori added that the approach of the film was not 
invalid/unreasonable.  There seems no sense in his comments that the 
film fails as documentary, but rather he sees it as some kind of hybrid 
film, (perhaps in the vein of an "eco-terrorism" genre?).

Also, filmmaker Mori even wondered out loud whether there would be this 
kind of protest if the filmmaker had been Japanese. 

My sense is that people are coming to this film from many different 
angles and it is difficult to generalize. 

This film has a critique of American corporate interest in dolphins, 
critique of the IWC as compromised, discussion of global 
over-consumption of seafood, and the problem mercury in the food supply 
(a global problem too). Unfortunately, the film doesn't explore these 
issues closely enough likely because of the "entertainment" aspect of 
the film that Mori refers to. And certainly the film suffers for the 
behavior of many of the participants and the lack of Japanese voices.  
Also, much could have been made of exactly why the dolphin fisheries are 
being protected when comparatively so few gain employment from it 
through discussion of gender, localism etc.  (as in Rebecca Scott's 
non-filmic work around Appalachian coal mining). 


Best,
Christine


> Hi,
>
> I was recently invited to an informal screening of the film, organized by one of the employees of the distributor in Japan. She talked about the barrage of threatening phone calls they have received - her boss told her not to stand too close to the tracks when she is on a platform at the train station.
>
> One other reason that several theaters have backed out may be that the film itself is not one most people will want to defend- it has obvious problems in its approach both to documentary and to Japan. While most people will agree that everyone should be allowed to make up their own mind about the film, there will probably be a lot less people wanting to define themselves as "pro-The Cove".
>
> Which means that it more or less boils down to a business decision; I agree that probably the film will eventually be shown somewhere, and probably make that theater quite a bit of money.
>
> Alex
>
>
>
>
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>
> -------- Original-Nachricht --------
>   
>> Datum: Sat, 5 Jun 2010 18:48:14 +0900
>> Von: Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
>> An: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>> Betreff: Re: The Cove
>>     
>
>   
>> The Asahi has been following the story of The Cove rather closely and  
>> has a somewhat long article in today's yukan (in Japanese):
>>
>> http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0605/TKY201006050158.html
>>
>> It includes comments from Koreeda Hirokazu and Mori Tatsuya. Koreeda  
>> strongly criticizes the film, but like Mori, strongly supports the  
>> screening of the movie.
>>
>>
>> Aaron Gerow
>> Associate Professor
>> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
>> Yale University
>> 53 Wall Street, Room 316
>> PO Box 208363
>> New Haven, CT 06520-8363
>> USA
>> Phone: 1-203-432-7082
>> Fax: 1-203-432-6764
>> e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
>> site: www.aarongerow.com
>>
>>
>>     
>
>   


-- 
Christine L. Marran
Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Cultural Studies
Department of Asian Languages and Literatures
University of Minnesota