“…Cinemas in Japan have cancelled plans to show an Oscar-winning film about the country’s annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins after far-right campaigners threatened to disrupt the screenings.
Unplugged, the Japanese distributor of The Cove, said three cinemas had cancelled screenings amid fears they would be disrupted by ultra-nationalists…
… who have denounced the film as “anti-Japanese”.
Named best documentary feature at this year’s Oscars, The Cove struggled to find a distributor in Japan following protests by Taiji fishermen …
… who complained that it contained inaccuracies and that they had been filmed without permission.
In an attempt to placate opponents, Unplugged blurred the faces of dolphin hunters in the Japanese version, which is due for domestic release on 26 June.
But threats of noisy street protests and unspecified “acts of sabotage” prompted two cinemas in Tokyo and one in Osaka to cancel the screenings.
The cinemas had received a flood of angry phone calls from ultra-rightwing activists … who also demonstrated outside Unplugged’s Tokyo office.
“The work intentionally distorts Japanese people’s food culture, and showing this will hurt many people’s feelings,” one of the protest groups, the Society to Seek the Restoration of Sovereignty, said.
The move could force 23 other cinemas around the country to reconsider plans to show the film this summer…”
go to source/story>>>Japanese cinemas drop dolphin slaughter film | World news | The Guardian
