Oscar-Winner The Cove Not So Big in Japan After All

Last anyone heard, this year's Best Documentary Feature Oscar-winner The Cove was headed for limited release in Japan, where audiences would finally be given the chance to make up their own minds about their country's brutal, controversial dolphin-slaughtering pastime. That was in February. Here it is the second week in June, and thanks to some nationalist outrage, the film still hasn't made its way to screens. What gives?

The Japanese distributor Unplugged said it has been beset with a steady torrent of angry calls and protest threats since announcing its plans to release the film. Discussions with dozens potential theaters have reportedly fallen through under pressure from "nationalists" who argue that the film's graphic depiction of mass dolphincide near the coastal village of Taiji is "a betrayal of Japanese pride." Pride? This is the same country that just today swore in its fifth premier in less than three years. "Japanese pride" might have bigger issues at stake than a documentary that every other industrialized nation saw months ago. Perspective, folks.

Anyway, filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of 55 signatories to an open letter condemning the intimidation and arguing for The Cove's release. "This is a film that has been widely shown abroad," they wrote in a statement released this week. "If the work, which is about Japan, cannot be shown in Japan, it only underlines the weakness of the freedom of speech in Japan." Moreover, do you know how hard this is for the country's Fisher Stevens completists? Don't penalize his cult for the sins of these heartless Flipper-brutalizers!

Seriously, Japan, WTF?

· Japanese pundits protest dolphin film cancellation [AP via Yahoo!]