The former dolphin trainer and main character in the Oscar-winning documentary about the dolphin hunt in Japan said Tuesday he has invited Daryl Hannah and other Hollywood stars to the village of Taiji to prevent the killings from starting again.
Ric O’Barry, whose documentary “The Cove” has been canceled in Japan following threats against movie theaters, said Hannah had confirmed her trip to a music festival in Taiji he is organizing in September.
Other celebrities who have already voiced their support for his cause include Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Jason Mraz, Chris Tashima and Robin Williams. They all appear in a public service announcement in support of “The Cove.”
The former dolphin trainer for the “Flipper” TV show believes his trip to Taiji last year with journalists, including The Associated Press, which brought international attention to the hunt, helped pressure fishermen to refrain from culling dolphins. This year he said he wants to bring 1,000 people to make sure the hunt doesn’t start up again.
“We all go there and have a good time, and support the economy,” he told AP Tuesday at a Tokyo hotel. “It’s not confrontational. We bring frisbees.”
In recent weeks, theaters in Japan have canceled screenings of “The Cove,” which had been planned for release later this month, after getting a flood of angry phone calls and threats by nationalists, who oppose the film as a denigration of Japanese culture.
Some of the protesters have been shouting slogans through loudspeakers at the Japanese distributor’s office. The threats have led to the cancellation of some of O’Barry’s speaking engagements during his current trip.
Only a handful of people in Taiji, a quiet town of 3,500, hunt dolphins, which are sold to aquariums or eaten. Although O’Barry has visited Taiji many times, the residents and fishermen have told AP that they resent the movie as outside interference in their lifestyle.
O’Barry said scientific data show that dolphin meat has high levels of mercury, which could be toxic if consumed in large amounts, and urged people to stop eating it for health reasons.
He said he would offer monetary help to anyone in Taiji and the surrounding region with symptoms of mercury-poisoning and promised to make sure they get tested.
A Japanese government lab test of Taiji residents, released last month, found dangerously high levels of mercury, but no one was diagnosed as ill although some were advised to cut back on eating dolphins.
Mercury poisoning, which is extremely risky for fetuses, can cause tremors, numbness, mood swings and impaired movement in adults, and can be fatal.
“The Cove” and O’Barry last week received an enthusiastic reception from more than 250 students at Wakayama University, located near Taiji village.
Kevin Collins, who invited O’Barry as part of his English-presentation class, said the exchange was lively.
“I think I understand his message, and I think I know how his message is being perceived by Japanese,” Collins said. “The Japanese think he is attacking their tradition.”
O’Barry says all he wants is a dialogue, including helping Taiji fishermen find alternative ways of making a living. He apologized if the secret filming tactics of “The Cove” have offended some people.
“But I make no apologies for my cause,” he said. “Many of my friends love the country of Japan, and they all ask the same question: Why do you need to slaughter dolphins?”
Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k62kc07m1Dc
Internet Service Company to Show ‘Cove’ in Japan
Japanese will finally get to see “The Cove” — but as streaming video on the Internet, not at movie theaters, as screenings of the dolphin-hunt documentary have been canceled due to loud nationalists’ protests.
Niwango Inc., a Tokyo-based Internet services company, said Thursday the Oscar-winning documentary that depicts the annual dolphin hunt in the small village of Taiji will be shown on its site Friday free of charge.
About 20 theaters in Japan had planned to show the film but canceled, one by one, after protesters made threatening phone calls and screamed slogans outside the distributor’s Tokyo office and other spots.
Nationalists oppose the film as a denigration of Japanese culture. It has been shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival and other more private screenings but has not opened at theaters.
Niwango said it will invite an exchange of views by e-mail and Twitter and will air another show Monday outlining the film’s controversy with speakers, including Kunio Suzuki, a nationalist who has mixed feelings about the film but believes it should be shown.
“The film raises issues,” Suzuki said in a statement on the Web. “Of course, there are parts of the film that are discomforting for us as Japanese. But, more than that, it offers lessons for us. We simply know nothing about the dolphin hunt.”
The film, which stars Ric O’Barry, 70, a former dolphin trainer for the “Flipper” TV series, shows a handful of fishermen herd a flock of dolphins into a cove and spear them to death as they writhe in agony.
O’Barry, who is in Japan this week to speak about the film to universities and other select groupings, apologized for the secretive filming methods.
Some journalists and academics have publicly protested the cancellations, calling it a violation of the freedom of expression.
The theaters say they are worried about security and complaints from nearby businesses. Japan tends to encourage harmony-loving conformity and is not well-equipped to deal with disruptive behavior. For decades, extremist groups have succeeded in getting their way by being loud and menacing.
The Nikkei, Japan’s top business daily, said in a front-page opinion piece Thursday that it is a shame the film is not shown.
“A work of genius, a flop or a monstrosity — the film must be seen first,” it said. “If it is forced to be canceled throughout Japan, that only hands a medal of honor to a very cleverly made propaganda work.”
O’Barry believes Japanese people deserve to have the option of seeing what he called an entertaining film that has won many awards, including this year’s Oscar for best documentary.
“This is an assault on democracy,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “They can make up their own mind about this film that the rest of the world has seen and approves of.”
