Whale-like creature hunting harpoon marked ‘one shot’
Japanese Netizen “Attacks Japan while Criticizing the Whaling Industry”
Controversy over the ‘anti-Japanese film’ turned audiences away
Expert “Ecological film… not intended to criticize”
enlarge photo
Controversy is brewing in Japan after it has been pointed out that the movie criticized Japan’s whaling industry.
According to Maeil Business News coverage on the 23rd, Japanese audiences defined James Cameron’s movie ‘Avatar’ as an anti-Japanese film, saying that it criticized Japan’s whaling industry. Japan resumed commercial whaling after withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 2019.
In the movie, there is a scene where the whale-like creature ‘Tulkun’ is being hunted. Japanese audiences responded that director James Cameron criticized Japan’s whaling industry because ‘日浦’ (日浦) was written on the harpoon used for hunting and the person who hunted was directed as an Asian. 日浦 (ilpo), pronounced ‘hiura’, is used in Japan to mean the beach where the sun rises.
On Avatar’s official Japanese Twitter account, angry Japanese people visited and wrote, “There’s no way to watch a movie that discredits Japan with whaling,” and they feel clear malice about using Asian actors only for whale killing scenes. They also asked if there was any criticism of the whaling industry in Norway or other countries that do whaling.
There was also a discussion about whaling online. Japanese online netizens said, “Westerns are portrayed as doing whaling, and criticism is being made against the whaling industry itself.”
Kang Seon-hyeong, a film critic, said, “It is true that the film criticizes anthropocentrism and has an ecological perspective,” but also said, “The film contains the images of various countries.” He continued, “It cannot be seen as correct to interpret the film as a material intended to criticize a specific country.”
Director James Cameron also said at a press conference in Korea on the 9th that ‘Avatar 2’ contained a message for marine and animal protection. “Many species in the ocean are endangered, and dolphins in particular are disappearing,” he said. “I wanted to send a message of marine conservation (through the film).”
In Korea, about 1.6 million people watched Avatar on the 17th and 18th, the last weekend, but in Japan, only 250,000 people watched Avatar. There is also an interpretation that the box office of Avatar, which ranked third at the Japanese box office behind ‘The First Slam Dunk’ and Makoto Shinkai’s new film ‘Suzume’s Door Crackdown’, will be further undermined by the whaling controversy.
