The Cove

[drainer at mpinet.net]

It's not a simple as that; they have agreements with police in most cases. I 
am not sure if there is a comparable example in other countries, as I can't 
think of other organizations that ride the coattails of the mafia. They're 
in the business of extortion and they're successful at it. Very few people 
tend to go against their "demands," whether due to the nuisance or just 
being scared. In any case, it's not as simple as "making a stand," the 
group's whole existence should be enough to compel someone to write about 
comparative politics, though we already know Japan is not a democracy.



And, as you would expect it, like anything in Japan, once you meet them on a 
one-to-one basis they can be nice people, though they tell very bad stories. 
Just my experience...





-d





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Roberts" <mroberts37 at mail-central.com>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 8:28 AM
Subject: Re: The Cove


> What puzzles me is why exhibitors cave in to these threats. Since when  is 
> scandal bad for business? Why not just let the sound trucks come,  let 
> them make fools of themselves, and let the police do their job?
>
> Although it may be difficult to imagine, there have been successful 
> lawsuits for noise pollution in Japan, and unless the law has changed, 
> the right-wingers are required by law to present the police with a 
> written notice of when they'll be there with their sound trucks. Law 
> enforcement should be able to keep a fairly close watch on what's 
> happening at the theater. If the police were notified and they don't  want 
> to do their job, well, that's a separate problem that taxpayers  might 
> need to think about.
>
> Even if the right-wingers actually do accost or attack anybody, won't  it 
> severely damage their own cause? Is the general populace really  going to 
> say: "yeah, that usher deserved to get beat up in the back  alley -- he 
> should have known better than to keep his job at Theater N  when 
> management decided to screen 'The Cove'."
>
> M
>
>
> On Jun 4, 2010, at 8:33 AM, Aaron Gerow wrote:
>
>> The Asahi reports this morning that one of the theaters scheduled to 
>> show the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove has broken under  pressure 
>> from right-wing organizations and decided not to show the  film. The 
>> right-wingers, who had threatened to begin protests on the  4th in front 
>> of the theater, had already performed loud protests in  front of the 
>> distributor in April, charging those associated with  the film with being 
>> "anti-Japanese" and "terrorists destroying the  Japanese spirit." Theater 
>> N in Shibuya, which is owned by the  publishing distributor Nippan, 
>> decided not to show the film because  for fear something might happen to 
>> one of the customers or someone  in the building. Cinemart Roppongi, the 
>> other theater scheduled to  show the film, is considering whether to go 
>> on with the screening.
>>
>> http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/dolphin-hunt-film-canceled-in-tokyo-after-protests
>>
>> Aaron Gerow
>> KineJapan owner
>>
>> Associate Professor
>> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
>> Yale University
>>
>> For list commands, send "information kinejapan" to
>> listserver at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>> Kinema Club: http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/Markus/Welcome.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>