Have you ever thought of eating dolphins? In Japan, it truly exists as many Japanese have tried dolphin meat. However, they did not know anything about the story behind. This documentary tries to disclose the dark side of Japan, international dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. Besides, it also reveals the hazardously high levels of mercury in dolphin meat and seafood widely sold in Japan which put Japanese’s life in peril. Many dolphins are captured and transported to international theme parks in the globe, companies could gain much economic benefits by putting dolphins on the show.
In fact, every dolphin experiences great pressure and pain behind those excellent performances which could not be easily shown by the smile and applause from the audience. In order to get into Taiji which is a sensitive area to both Japanese government and fisherman, a crew is formed to discover the truth there. They utilize state-of-the-art techniques, including hidden microphones and cameras in fake rocks, the team uncovers how this small seaside village serves as a horrifying harbor of massive dolphin slaughter.
We also see how the international governmental organization has been manipulated by the Japanese government for its benefit. Some less developed countries are even bribed to support Japan as they don’t possess any bargaining power. The film highly reveals the unfairness of international organizations and cruelty of Japan in massive slaughtering of dolphins. Finally, this film successfully arouses public awareness on this issue and became the winner of the 2009 Academy Award for best feature documentary. Principle subject and purpose of “the Cove”
The director, O’ Barry used to capture and train dolphins in the popular American TV-series. Later, Kathy, the dolphin who played in the series most of the time, died in his arms, then he realized that capturing dolphins and training them to perform silly tricks is simply wrong. This contributes the production of “the Cove” which makes an effort to end brutal dolphin hunts in Japan and to inform and educate the public about mercury poisoning caused by eating dolphin meat. By filming the true reality in a form of documentary, it acts as a mass media which reports the truth to people in worldwide. It helps to arouse international awareness on the exploitation and massive slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.
My feeling towards “the Cove” I feel so upset about those innocent dolphins whose are born to be in nature. Unfortunately, they are not given any choices to stay or leave, but forced to get involved in those human matters as performance for economic benefits. It is just ridiculous to see human’s selfishness and inconsideration to everything around them. They always think that they deserve to do everything they want.
