image: ap

The wildly popular and Oscar winning documentary, The Cove, premiered in Japan this past weekend to a few sold out crowds, as well as some protesters. Previously, showings had been postponed due to protests and a telephone campaign by angry nationalists to halt the eye-opening movie from being shown. The film depicts the annual and brutal slaughter of bottle nose dolphins in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji. Most of the Japanese people in the film have their faces blurred out, and the fisherman in the movie do not want to be shown without their permission.

For those of you who have seen the film, you know that Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson is interviewed in The Cove which infuriates many Japanese nationalists as his organization has been deemed a “terrorist organization” and he himself is on Interpol’s wanted list by urging of the Japanese government for interrupting whaling activities.

This time around, Japanese audiences made their way to the theaters to see The Cove for themselves, and many of those shows were sold out. Said audience member Tomokazu Toshinai, “I didn’t know about dolphin hunting. Whether it’s TV or movies, Japanese have a right to know these things.” 16 other theaters in Japan will start screening the film in the coming weeks.

Even the film’s director, Louis Psihoyos wasn’t sure if it would ever be seen in Japan. He stated, “I told the crew when we started making ‘The Cove’ that we were not making a movie but starting a movement. But only in my wildest dreams did I believe ‘The Cove’ would be screened in Japan. The resistance by a few right-wing nationalists to force theaters to not show the movie sparked a nationwide free-speech debate which has invigorated deeper thinking there. This movie has developed into a tool for social change — a powerful weapon of mass construction. I will never underestimate the profound power of a film again.”

Click here to watch director Louis Psihoyos at The Cove’s official pre-Oscar party in which he calls his film the prequel to Avatar!