Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2010

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You probably know the details about this Oscar-winning agit-prop doc. It’s shocking and clever, and plays like a caper flick. But let me see if I’ve got this all straight: 28 fishermen in a little village in Wakayama catch dolphins for the purposes of (1) selling the best into dreary performance captivity in marine-mammal gulags around the globe (which is bad enough), and (2) brutally slaughtering the rest. But the meat is so poisonous with mercury that they can’t even give it away to their local schools. So they mislabel it as whale and sell it to the unsuspecting public. The government condones and even subsidizes this practice, and then covers it up! This is defended, with a straight face (and usually a knee-jerk), as “tradition.” Heaven help us. What kind of a tradition is it that must be kept secret? That produces nothing save the salaries of 28 fishermen? That knocks Japan down another notch in world opinion? I believe the Japanese are a kind and compassionate people. So why the blind spot? Could it be that they don’t know about this horror? The right-wingers have succeeded in shutting down nearly every Tokyo theater willing to screen this movie. At press time, we received word that it will run at Image Forum in Shibuya (2-10-2 Shibuya; www.imageforum.co.jp) and five other theaters from July 3, with more nationwide screenings to follow.

See http://thecove-2010.com for details (Japanese)