Thursday, January 21, 2010

Japan's Dark Secrets Revealed in "The Cove"

If you haven't seen this movie, you should. There are some documentaries that are meant to rock our little worlds of selective understanding and empathy. This is probably one of the hardest hitting of them all. I will not give away too much, because it wouldn't make any difference if I did, considering the shock value of this very important film. I will only suggest it in the same way a friend did for me a few days ago. "Just watch it," he said, with a look on his face both haunted and enlightened by what he saw. I will  say this, while Japan has embraced a rather docile outer layer of their social onion since World War Two, there still lies underneath--in places--some of the same inexplicable and cruel imperialistic actions once publicly known. This film, while focusing its naked lens on a tiny part of Japan, manages to strip bare horrors supported in the name of tradition, while much of Japan remains ignorant of its own dirty secrets.

2 comments:

fumanchuck said...

Ya, great to see, Important film. Shame about the score.

kinger said...

Yeah, especially Bowie's cheeseballer at the end, eh? Eh??