A WHALE OF A TALE

A WHALE OF A TALE

FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2018 -- In 2010 the Oscar for Best Documentary feature went to a save-the-whales movie by Louie Psihoyos titled "the Cove". It was about the whale and dolphin hunting that occurred in this tiny little Japanese called Taijii. The filmmaker, an American hide out and filmed the townspeople herding the dolphins into a cove and hunting them.

Now, seven years later comes the inevitable sequel by Japanese director Megumi Sasaki; or perhaps better... a rebuttal. Because, as the mayor of Taiji said "There's nothing worse than a scene in an Academy Award-winning film."

While "The Cove" painted the town as a burg of barbarians that killed the sweetest, kindest swimming mammals on the planet, Sasaki doesn't paint a different picture but instead paints a clearer picture. This is the classic case of two sides to every story and this is the other side. It first paints the town as an isolated dot stuck on a rocky grave next to the one place where a food source happens to swim by.

Sasaki tells the story of how the town built the Museum of the Whale, which has since been the subject of several lawsuits by animal abuse protesters. Sasaki tells the story of how just about everyone in Taiji uses the dolphin meat for food. More importantly Sasaki tells the story of invasive foreigners trying to tell a small town how to live.

Advocates for the town and the whalers in the town point out that they aren't hunting any animals that are endangered and that the animals they capture for aquariums are shipped around the world. The film then points out that because of the boycotts and "The Cove" the town's income has dropped drastically.

The film depicts the filmmakers and Green Peace volunteers as an invasive species destroying the lives of a small town that was minding its own business.

"A Whale of A Tale" is a well produce rebuttal to "The Cove". It tells the other side of the story through the eyes of those living in a little town that has been shamed by the rest of the world for surviving off the sea by feasting on the worlds favorite sea critter. -- GRADE B+ -- GEOFF BURTON

GEOFF BURTON