Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A Monkey Movie Review

If you want the penultimate proof the human beings are the stupidest, most short sighted beings on this planet then look no further than this film. It shows once again why we are at best a cancer that can and should be wiped out as soon as possible.

This film tells two stories, the main story is about the village of Taiji in Japan where they slaughter around 23,000 dolphins a year and the other story is about how the guy who caught and trained the dolphins on the '60's TV show Flipper came to do a 180 on dolphins in captivity, initially he was all for it but after he saw what it did to the dolphins he captured and trained for television he's against it and works for the release and protection of dolphins everywhere.

The main story about the slaughter in Taiji is heart wrenching, disgusting, and shows what idiots humans are. The Japanese, despite western entreaties to stop, still actively pursue whaling. They do it for food and out of a sense of national pride, they resent the west telling them to stop. But a lot of the meat sold as whale meat in Japan is actually dolphin meat, which is loaded with mercury, which is a toxic substance which will lead to birth defects. Despite being shown that eating dolphin leads to mercury poisoning and that given the choice Japanese people will not knowingly eat dolphin, the slaughter continues and the eating of misleadingly labeled dolphin meat continues. The townspeople of Taiji are very protective of their dolphin killers and they'll go to just about any lengths to keep the slaughter secret.

And the Japanese government backs them up by saying that the murder of dolphins and whales is necessary because the whales and dolphins eat the fish that would have been caught and eaten by Japanese citizens. It's fucking insane. But it's not unheard of, a government collaborating with a business or corporation in a business that has been proven to be unpopular, unwanted, and bad for the environment, case in point is how our government been in bed with fossil fuel companies for decades.

I recommend this film highly, although it may make you sink deeper into despair over how badly we humans have fucked things up. Kudos all around to the film makers, one of whom is actor Fischer Stevens who I'm guessing helped produce this film in order to atone for his horribly racist performance in Short Circuit.

3 comments:

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

It's the scourge of Asia that they will produce so many people that one individual means nothing. It's the same idea that presists in the killing of the dolphin. And this comes from a people that eat the most bizzare things from the sea. You would think that if you totally eliminated dolphin from their menu that they would not even notice it.

Wings1295 said...

Wonder how long til nature rights the mistake of the human race?

McGriddle Pants said...

Reminds me of District 9. The whole movie I was rooting for the aliens and was hoping they just wiped us off the face of the planet.

I hope the Japanese all die from Mercury poisoning. Poor dolphins. They're the SMARTEST MAMMAL on the planet!! Shiiiiiiit.