Louie Psihoyos, 'The Cove' Director, Gives Free DVDs To All Taiji, Japan Residents

TOKYO — Copies of the 2010 Oscar-winning film that depicts the slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji have been delivered free to its residents, compliments of the director.

Louie Psihoyos, director of "The Cove," said Monday the film dubbed in Japanese was delivered via regular mail over the weekend to all households, with the help of a local group called People Concerned for the Ocean.

An official at Taiji city hall confirmed that two copies of the DVD had been received, but no one had looked at them yet.

Psihoyos said he was concerned many Japanese have yet to see the film, but especially the 3,500 people of Taiji in the southwest of the country.

"The people in Taiji deserve to know what millions of others around the world have learned about their town," said the American director.

"The Cove" received a Best Documentary Oscar a year ago for its scathing portrayal of Taiji's dolphin hunting tradition. It showed about a dozen fishermen scaring the dolphins with metallic banging noises into a cove, and then stabbing them as they bled and writhed in the water.

The film outraged many around the world, but Japan has defended the practice.

The film was shown last year at some theaters in the country. But the theaters and the distributor were often targeted by protesters who objected to the film as disrespectful to Japanese culture. They used trucks with blaring loudspeakers in an attempt to intimidate neighborhoods into shutting down the shows.

"I hope the people of Taiji feel a sense of relief when they see 'The Cove' because they'll realize that it is just a handful of local environmental thugs giving a whole nation a black eye, not them," Psihoyos told The Associated Press. "To me the film is a love letter to the people of Taiji."

The Japanese government allows about 20,000 dolphins to be caught each year. Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat. The hunts generate far more money from selling live animals to aquariums.

___

Online:

Free viewing of the Japanese-dubbed version of "The Cove":

http://www.thecovemovie.com/freejapanesedownload

"The Cove": http://www.thecovemovie.com/

Comments

[Amy Fleischer]

10:52 PM on 03/26/2011

I think this director needs to make more on the way the world produces food, not just Japan. Yes, for the record, I have seen this movie and it makes my skin crawl, but no one can honestly say that the Japanese are horrible people for doing this. What needs to stop is the over-production of meat around the world. We need to open our eyes to way ALL food is raised and prepared before we cast our stones for the US and Europe are not innocent bystanders.

[conservicide]

09:24 PM on 03/01/2011

Fk Japanese republicans.

[berrylava]

08:01 PM on 03/10/2011

I felt this way after watching The Cove.

[European1919]

08:53 AM on 03/01/2011

This movie should be compulsory viewing in schools around the globe, not just Japan.

[Tammy Yuth]

01:47 AM on 03/01/2011

How many times have dolphins saved humans and other creatures that are different from them? When I rented The Cove I thought it was going to be some touchy lovey documentary but it was an eye opener for me to something I didn't even realize was happening. Shame on the human race...shame...for letting this continue.... I attended the protest in Seattle and was SHOCKED at how few people attended.

[Greenman7]

10:11 PM on 02/28/2011

One of the best donations of my hard earned cash in my life. Keep turning up the heat until the slaughter stops.

[ehorth]

06:00 PM on 02/28/2011

"I hope the people of Taiji feel a sense of relief when they see 'The Cove' because they'll realize that it is just a handful of local environmental thugs giving a whole nation a black eye, not them," Psihoyos told The Associated Press. "To me the film is a love letter to the people of Taiji."

I find this story somewhat confusing: "local environmental thugs" - is Psihoyos calling the fisherman "thugs"? And how does showing a village that its fisherman are stabbing and violently killing dolphins a "love letter to the people of Taiji"? Also, if most of these dolphins are used as live animals in aquariums and not for meat, why would they be stabbing them?

This isn't very clear.

[Greenman7]

10:12 PM on 02/28/2011

Did you see The Cove, ehorth?

[morganraider]

12:14 AM on 03/01/2011

Obviously he (or she) did not.

[Caligal1]

05:10 PM on 02/28/2011

Good for him! Everyone needs to see this movie, especially the people of Japan. It's not culture; it's cruelty.

[seachange525]

04:59 PM on 02/28/2011

Wonderful idea! Now let's get EVERYONE to look at the consequences of their actions. How about nice slaughterhouse footage sent to every meat-eating home in the world?

[TokyoStormWarning]

07:24 AM on 03/01/2011

Thank you seachange, for pointing out the hypocrisy of Louie Psihoyos' action. Everyone involved in the making of The Cove are from big meat-eating countries (U.S., Canada and Australia) where countless pigs, cows, lambs and sheep live in horrible conditions until they are finally slaughtered for their meat. I could maybe get behind this movement if the dolphins they are slaughtering were an endangered species...but they aren't.

[seachange525]

11:37 AM on 03/01/2011

I said nothing about hypocrisy here. Surely such intelligent creatures should not be slaughtered. My point is that we ALL need to be aware of the consequences of our actions...we need to SEE them and FEEL them. This is a good start, but it needs to go further.

[Red45]

04:20 PM on 02/28/2011

Brilliant move. Good for him. I hope it works.

[Gabriele Vaitkeviciute]

04:15 PM on 02/28/2011

The fact is, most of people living in Taiji already know about the slaughter and most of them are against it.