homefront is a 2013 american action thriller film directed by gary fleder and released nationwide in theaters on november 27 .

based on chuck logan 's novel of the same name and adapted into a screenplay by sylvester stallone , the film stars jason statham , james franco , winona ryder , and kate bosworth .

filming began on october 1 , 2012 in new orleans .

homefront ( film )

homefront is a 2013 american action film directed by gary fleder . the film is based on chuck logan ' s novel of the same name . the film was released on november 27 , 2013 .
homefront makes a familiar scenario fresh , propelled by jason statham ' s phil broker .
both homefront and the original red dawn were co - written by screenwriter john milius .
have a read his homefront : the voice of freedom prequel novel . somebody in the sa homefront thread put up some brief excepts , and it ' s * bloody awful * .
pro video film & distribution kft . ( 2013 ) ( hungary ) ( theatrical )
tomorrow when the war began and homefront don ' t have the same writers . the writer fro homefront was the guy who wrote the original red dawn - yeah i forgot his name .
home sweet homefront … jason statham and izabela vidovic . photograph : allstar / lionsgate / sportsphoto ltd
looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing homefront near you .
sylvester stallone originally developed the screenplay as an installment of his rambo film series . see more »
up to date as of july 7th , 2018 ( give or take a film or three ) .
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
. why is that so interesting ? because they already shot the film as a chinese invasion of the states .
jason statham makes existentialist action films . they are neither good nor bad , they just are . homefront is no exception .
rising to the top with over $ 30 million . it was the only film that earned more than that amount , while
the blue crush star is joining jason statham and james franco in homefront , according to the hollywood reporter ' s heat vision blog .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
both homefront and the original tomorrow when the war began were co - written by screenwriter john marsden . . . oh wait . . .
homefront manages to hit all the right notes and even a few you wouldn ' t expect , and there ' s nothing expendable about that .
the film contains scenes of drug misuse and preparation , including crack smoking and the ' cooking up ' of drugs on a spoon .
homefront is an action thriller about a former dea agent who moves to a small town with his daughter and becomes the target of a local drug king .
that’s all well and good for universal’s sequel , but paramount pictures’ own franchise film star trek beyond dropped almost 60 % in its second week of box office earnings . at $ 24 million domestically , the justin lin - directed film does end up taking second place and going over $ 105 million at the homefront . this film , too , continues its international rollout through october , but its international performance is lagging behind . compared to the j . j . abrams - directed installments , star trek beyond falls short of the $ 146 + million tallies they had by the end of their second weekend . it will be interesting to see how paramount responds concerning the fourth star trek film they’ve already announced ; perhaps a smaller budget is in the cards .
compared with the opening number for spike lee ' s oldboy ( £95 , 000 from 253 sites ) , the homefront result is a glorious triumph . oldboy fell into the trap of some previous english language remakes where the talent is not commercially appealing enough to take the film to a new audience , leaving it targeting cinemagoers who had seen the original film and may not need to see the same story twice . a similar phenomenon to when argentinian conman flick nine queens was remade as criminal starring sam rockwell , diego luna and maggie gyllenhaal – all rightly admired indie actors who couldn ' t take the film beyond the original audience .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
homefront is a safe film . it breaks no boundaries , reinvents nothing , it just does what it is supposed to do and there is nothing wrong with that . if you ' re up for a straightforward action film that has been made millions of times before , you ' ll probably enjoy watching this . it is scripted by sylvester stallone which tells me two things . he can still read and he can still write . encouraging thoughts keeping in mind his most recent films .
so a film meant to highlight the strength and resolve of the american spirit against an oppressive regime . . . has just caved in to an oppressive regime ?
neither the film nor the game comes close to being a critical darling . according to metacritic , the film has a score of 36 / 100 , with most reviews ranging from mixed to negative . homefront has a metacritic score of 70 / 100 . and while that sounds better - and there are a few more good reviews than the film has - for a major game by a major studio , that ' s a disappointing score . ( as forbes contributor paul tassi points out , for most gamers , that score translates to
a generally bad game that only a few will enjoy .
) and the average user score is worse than the critical score .
mgm has been working with the film ' red dawn ' s ' director and producers to make the most commercially viable version of the film for audiences worldwide ,
said mike vollman , executive vice president of worldwide marketing to the la times .
we want to ensure the most people possible are able to experience it .
the success of frozen contrasts with rival animation free birds , which fell by 70 % from the previous weekend , the biggest drop of any film in the top 10 .
the script was written by stallone in an intentional throwbacky action film . james franco plays a total weenie small time meth dealer . he doesn ' t actually do a single thing successfully in the whole film except intimidate some high school kids . he just stays fucking up . and then statham beats the shit out of him . it ' s great .
the film ' s producers are in the process of digitally altering the new red dawn , swapping out chinese imagery and changing dialogue to make the film ' s aggressors north korean , reports the la times . studio execs were concerned about chinese leadership being offended by the war flick and losing ( potentially ) a billion viewers over red dawn ' s choice of villain .
extrapolating the parallels from homefront to red dawn , my guess is that the new film will do decently - probably enough to take back its estimated $ 75 million production budget , but not too much more . i ' d be surprised to see it crack $ 100 million , and i ' d also guess that the box office take is going to be pretty frontloaded with large drop - offs in the coming weeks .
publisher thq shared similar concerns when it chose a unified korean invasion over a chinese attack on us soil . execs said china was just
not that scary
. but it too was worried about china ' s reception to homefront .
homefront is an action movie about a widowed ex - dea agent who retires to a small town for the sake of his 10 - year - old daughter . the only problem is he picked the wrong town . ( c ) open road
full financial estimates for this film , including domestic and international box office , video sales , video rentals , tv and ancillary revenue are available through our research services . for more information , please contact us at research @ urltoken .
with a further five films all opening on at least 100 prints , the weekend saw a wide range of mainstream contenders go belly - up . most successful was jason statham starrer homefront , with £440 , 000 from 295 sites . although that ' s an improvement on the start for his last film hummingbird ( £206 , 000 ) , it ' s moderately down on the debuts of recent efforts such as parker ( £569 , 000 ) and safe ( £680 , 000 ) .
the trailer seems to promise a showdown between broker and drug - dealing villain gator bodine ( or
gaturr bow - dine ,
as james franco introduces himself ) , but the film delivers something a lot more tangled and interesting . ( i mean , come on : statham vs . franco would have been a six - second vine . ) to avoid spoilers , let’s just say that
homefront
is more interested in how cowards and bullies thrive on manipulating each other , and how a strong , decent man like broker can find himself a victim of their parasitic politics .
homefront
is an action movie about a widowed ex - dea agent who retires to a small town for the sake of his 10 - year - old daughter . the only problem is he picked the wrong town , because it ' s full of meth - selling rednecks who want their revenge .
no , i ' m not talking about the re - make of red dawn , which opens over this holiday . i ' m talking about homefront , a video game released by thq interactive , which shares more than a few similarities to the new movie . homefront ' s story is credited to john milius , who wrote the script for the 1984 red dawn . and like the red dawn remake , the initial villains were chinese before being changed to north korea . the parallels are interesting enough to make me wonder if the game will also offer a preview of how red dawn will perform at the box office .
the film , which sylvester stallone has adapted from a book by chuck logan , follows a former drug enforcement agent , played by jason , who wants to retire to a small town and live the quiet life . but his plans are scuppered by a villainous drug dealer played by james .
. this film made just over $ 20 million at the box office , which is amazing for a limited release . however , it is still a limited release on top of the new releases . that tells you how slow this week is on the home market . fortunately , last friday
aside from the messy action scenes , the film has a professional look and the actors generally supply ample juice playing over - excitable characters . only statham isn ' t allowed to join in the fun , obliged as he is to remain in stolid , stalwart mode while everyone goes ballistic around him .
“it’s a bit like appalachia : you can go from two kids in a fistfight to the emergency room real fast , ” advises one concerned citizen in “homefront , ” a tale of backwoods retribution that resembles roman polanski’s “carnage” transplanted to “deliverance” country , where feuding parents prefer outright war to wars of words . but what sounds like a [ … ]
homefront is mostly just your typical jason statham action film , but it is livened up a bit by a scenery chewing performance from james franco a story with enough intrigue to keep you invested until the end . the action is fairly standard for the genre at this point , but still well done . sylvester stallone did the screenplay , which is contrived and ridiculous in spots and could have been improved . he wrote it specifically with statham in mind though , and it shows . it caters to his good qualities enough to make this an enjoyable b movie experience , even if it isn ' t exactly high quality cinema . definitely worthwhile for action buffs or statham fans , but little appeal beyond that really .
mechanic : resurrection may have seemed liked an unasked - for sequel , but clearly someone out there wanted to see it . now if those people could just catch up on safe , the bank job , and homefront , all will be right with the world . statham will be seen next in universal / comcast corp . ' s fast 8 in april of next year .
opened in one theater on friday the 22nd before expanding wide on wednesday the 27th . normally we don ' t like to use films that have already opened , but it is still the best choice for the target film for this week ' s box office prediction contest . in order to win , one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for
the baton has instead been passed to sly’s expendables cohort jason statham , an actor now so reliable at guttural machismo you could never accuse his films of false advertising . homefront does nothing to stretch its leading man , but there ' s something to be said for statham’s stardom and the films being slotted around it – like a stubborn bollard , you always know exactly where to find him .
a marine must do whatever it takes to save his kidnapped sister and stop a terrorist attack masterminded by a radical militia group . the marine 3 : homefront is the 3rd installment in the marine series and the 2nd sequel out of the 4 that have been released so far and to be honest it was a pretty damn good and decent wwe studios film plus the miz is way better than john cena at least so that ' s something and neal mcdonough made a really cool villain but then again mcdonough is great in pretty much anything that he ever does . if you enjoyed the first 2 films for what they were you ' re going to enjoy this one as well but don ' t expect anything more than just a fun ride . ( 7 / 10 )
the rest of the pack , namely statham’s many solo action vehicles , guy ritchie capers and related genre fare , all sit below the seemingly unasked - for sequel . while the film co - starred jessica alba , tommy lee jones and michelle yeoh , it was a statham action - er all the way and was sold mostly on his cred . the film earned $ 88 million in overseas grosses . so , it not only out - grossed the mechanic ( $ 76m ) just in overseas grosses , it would sit just between transporter 3 ( $ 109m ) and transporter 2 ( $ 85m worldwide , but his biggest domestic solo vehicle with $ 43m back in 2005 ) among the top statham vehicles even if it had gone direct - to - dvd in north america .
homefront sounds faintly like a diy programme on 1990s daytime television , but turns out to be a bust - up in the bayous between a single dad and some louisiana meth runners . whatever works . faces are broken , crayfish gobbled , white - trash accents dusted off . if it’s easily imaginable as a sylvester stallone vehicle , that’s because he wrote the script , which was originally intended as the final instalment of rambo .
this is a terrific and powerful movie . a hard - edged and explosive action - packed thriller . a total knockout of an action film . one of the years best action movies hands down . a strong and tough film that when is not shooting or blowing things up it packs a hard - hitting amount of riveting drama that feels very real and effective . director , gary fleder gives a great energy to the material , crafting a fine heart - pounding film . writer / producer , sylvester stallone writes a deep , down and thrilling story that balances drama and action well . stallone wrote the role specifically for statham , giving him new reach and depth that he knew the action star could accomplish . jason statham is at his absolute best , he gives a powerful and surprisingly compassionate performance . statham proves to be getting better as an actor , just improving with every performance . james franco is excellent , finally dropping from his recent line of comedies and back to more serious territory and proving to be more than an exceptional match for statham . i loved this movie , it is truly awesome and delivers big time . it ' s utterly thrilling , heart - pounding and sometimes deeply moving .
the general public , that strange amalgam of tribes and cliques ( ooka chaka , ooka chaka ! ) , will
get
this more so than those of the film intelligentsia among us . bread and circuses prepared for and designed by sly stallone , no less ( who might have an idea what the film going public wants after all this time ) , and gives it to them . and there are some surprises : franco and ryder are great as the bad guys ( uhh , spoiler alert ! sorry ) , squeaky clean bosworth does better street ho than you could ' ve imagined , and finally statham , who ' s always a lone cowboy , pulls off caring dad with better chops than you would ' ve thought possible . all in all a pretty decent entertainment offering once one accepts that one is here to see some bad guys get seriously pounded into the ground .
given that over the past twelve months he ' s played everything from the wizard of oz and hugh hefner to spring breakers '
alien
and himself in this is the end , it ' s tough to speculate about how james franco chooses his film roles . but it would be easy to believe that he agreed to play the swamp rat drug dealer in homefront just for the opportunity it provides for him to bellow out his character ' s memorable name , as in
my name is gator bodine ! ! !
franco clearly relishes the handle , which is more than most people will feel about this trashy , manipulative , by - the - numbers crime drama in which jason statham wrestles with both gator and an american accent . the open road entry will have to make its score very quickly upon nov . 27 release before being crowded out of the marketplace by more high - profile year - end titles .
while oldboy was met with little enthusiasm from critics and audiences ( a perfectly aligned 49 / 100 on metacritic and 4 . 9 / 10 rating at imdb ) , the same cannot be said of nebraska , which is enjoying a major awards push for lead actor bruce dern . a metacritic score of 85 / 100 and an imdb user rating of 8 . 0 suggest that the film is a winner , making the weak box - office result all the more disappointing . a debut of £151 , 000 from 122 cinemas is enough to push the site average into four figures ( £1 , 240 ) , but you ' d expect far better . alexander payne ' s last film the descendants ( which had the advantage of a bona fide movie star in george clooney ) debuted with £1 . 80m from 403 cinemas . before that , sideways kicked off with £350 , 000 from 72 venues .
the boiler - plate opening action scene isn ' t bad , as undercover dea agent phil broker ( statham in a wig ) spearheads a bust of a big city drug lab . the whole joint blows up and when the big boss is led away by the cops , he gets off a promise to broker that sets the tone for most of the film ' s dialogue :
your kids are f - - - - - - dead .
now the film cost around $ 40 million to produce , so it ' s not necessarily a mega blockbuster even as it may triple its budget . but this bodes well for warner bros . / time warner inc . ’s upcoming “jason statham and fan bingbing versus a giant shark” adventure meg which opens on north american shores in march of 2018 . said chinese co - production will be distributed in china by gravity pictures with wb handling the rest of the world .
fleder , who is a pretty standard button - masher as an action director , actually shows infectious relish and nuance in depicting statham’s slow return to his violent ways . it’s the psychology that counts : we’ve all been there , tested and prodded constantly by some unreasonable , relentless fool who won’t recognize sincere attempts at peacemaking . statham’s discomfort at having to extend the olive branch when he’d rather jam it in the other guy’s windpipe is the film ' s most suspenseful stunt .
homefront is sufficiently silly and low - down to be entertaining on a certain marginal level , but it wouldn ' t appear that those involved , with the possible exception of franco , approached this with the idea that they might be making good trash ; it looks too elaborate and costly for that and the script exhibits no self - aware humor . so when real peril arrives for broker and maddy , it just feels as though the computer has rotely delivered the pre - programmed climactic scenes that have been indicated from close to the beginning .
once the slow fuse of jason statham’s fury reaches the dynamite , fleder unleashes a series of old school set pieces that cry out for the economy of a walter hill or the operatic style of a john woo . or , even better , the slow - roast verisimilitude of a jeff nichols , whose
shotgun stories
is arguably the greatest backwoods feud movie ever made . as vengeance was meted out mechanically in the final showdown of
homefront ,
my thoughts drifted to franco and his small - town loser friends , with sympathy . sure , they’re violent assholes , but their biggest crime in this film is being graceless rednecks with colossal class envy . they want somethin ' like what statham got , a big country home and enough downtime to go horseback riding with his daughter instead of busting hump at the quarry or slinging dope . somewhere in the chaos of flames and clashing vehicles , franco mutters a lament along those lines . in the end , as in most films of this type , the dea triumphs in its land war against the peasants , and statham can get back to his life .
but the good news is that the millennium - produced release , which was distributed by summit / lionsgate in the states , earned a whopping $ 88 . 2 million - and - counting overseas . that includes a $ 44m running cume in china , giving the 2016 sequel to the 2011 remake a $ 109 . 4m worldwide total . that means that the film surpassed the $ 109m worldwide cume of the transporter 3 back in 2008 . that means that , so sayeth box office mojo , mechanic : resurrection is statham’s biggest solo action hit ever .
here ' s a film that was exactly what i thought it was going to be . . . a straightforward action thriller with some testosterone - fueled punch - outs , big explosions , solid acting and not a whole lot to think about . jason statham plays former dea agent phil broker , who moves with his 10 - year - old daughter to rural louisiana after the death of his wife . before he can really settle in , local meth maker gator bodine ( james franco ) discovers his identity and decides to use the information to his own advantage .
pushing the hunger games : catching fire aside after its two weeks at the top spot , disney ' s frozen opened with £4 . 70m . that ' s by no means the top number for an animation this year – despicable me 2 debut gathered £14 . 82m , including £4 . 87m in previews in june – but it ' s a solid start for a film presumed to play to the christmas audience . family films targeting the christmas market have a knack of playing strongly right through until christmas eve , and if the festive association is not too strong can , continue to play beyond that date .
if bosworth proves to be “homefront’s” greatest surprise , sporting a meth addict’s wasted physique and a white - trash stridency that belies an inner canniness , franco qualifies as its biggest disappointment . though he brings a certain snarling menace to gator , he never really sinks his teeth into the role ( the way he did with his latter - day big bad wolf character in harmony korine’s “spring breakers” ) , and whatever private amusement slumming it as a one - dimensional ( and not very bright ) baddie may have held for the actor , it’s lost on the audience . mostly , franco just seems to be biding his time here , bored with the part and the movie that contains it .
i can ' t think of a better actor to deliver a line in a menacing , yet calm way , than jason statham does here . he is one of the contemporary action stars that audiences will go see without hesitation or worrying about the screenplay . the reason is because there are very few actors that can deliver their fight scenes as well as he does . audiences can feel every punch or kick from statham without the need of quick edits or shaky camera movements . unfortunately , the main problem with homefront is that director gary fleder ( kiss the girls , runaway jury ) didn ' t use his action skills as a means to improve the movie , but rather sticked to the usual…
released on a more modest 50 screens , the tighter rollout for kill your darlings doesn ' t appear to have done it many favours , with a weak opening just below £39 , 000 . daniel radcliffe fans who flocked to see him in the woman in black evidently were less enticed by the prospect of him as a young allen ginsberg , with dane dehaan , ben foster and jack huston playing other writers from the beat poet era . independent cinemas playing this film and nebraska were in for a double disappointment . saving mr banks ( the gentlest faller in the chart , down 31 % ) , the butler and philomena continue to offer crossover alternatives .
so how did homefront fare on the business side ? well , like red dawn , there was a lot of pre - release buzz and excitement . that was enough to give the game 375 , 000 in first - day sales in north america . overall , according to vgchartz , the game has sold about 2 . 36 million copies nationwide . that ' s not a bad take for a new franchise , but falls well short of sales in other military shooters such as the call of duty or battlefield series , and its pace to that number is a lot slower than other franchise starters such as 2009 ' s borderlands or 2007 ' s assassin ' s creed . still , that was enough to encourage a sequel , which is currently in development .
for the third weekend in a row , uk box - office is up on the equivalent frame from 2012 , on this occasion by an impressive 40 per cent . exactly a year ago , the market was becalmed as it waited for the arrival of the hobbit : an unexpected journey , and top title rise of the guardians was a relative underperformer . history looks likely to repeat itself with the arrival on friday of the hobbit : the desolation of smaug . the film has a sensational 9 . 2 / 10 approval rating from the early adopters who have registered their enthusiasm at imdb , and warners must be confident of a strong box - office performance . alternatives include a re - release of cinema paradiso and a festive offering called the christmas candle .
“it’s a bit like appalachia : you can go from two kids in a fistfight to the emergency room real fast , ” advises one concerned citizen in “ homefront , ” a tale of backwoods retribution that resembles roman polanski’s “carnage” transplanted to “deliverance” country , where feuding parents prefer outright war to wars of words . but what sounds like a veritable b - movie wet dream — with that master of the subzero scowl , jason statham , starring in a screenplay written by sylvester stallone — turns out to be considerably less than the sum of its parts : a listless programmer in the “walking tall” mode , minus the ebullient spark of statham’s “crank” and “transporter” franchises and stallone’s own “expendables” pics . offered as thanksgiving counter - programming by distrib open road , the pic may carve up modest biz with the shoot - your - own - turkey crowd , but should be available as a stocking stuffer by christmas .
the ever - prolific stallone ( who has “escape plan” still in theaters and “grudge match” due at year’s end ) adapted “ homefront ” from a novel by crime writer chuck logan — one in a series featuring the character of ex - minnesota cop phil broker — originally envisioning the project as a starring vehicle for himself before passing the torch to statham , who ably fills the character’s ass - kicking shoes . when we first meet him , broker is an undercover dea agent ( by way of interpol , so as to allow for the actor’s brit accent ) about to snag a gang of meth - running louisiana bikers , an op that ends with broker’s cover ( and several square blocks of shreveport ) blown sky - high , and the son of the gang honcho riddled with bullets . ( in a wry play on statham’s trademark shaven - headed appearance , the undercover broker sports a long , straggly mane of ’80s - style rocker hair . )
october ended on a winning note , but it was the only time the entire month that 2013 topped 2012 in the year - over - year comparison . this is quite shocking , as gravity crushed expectations with more than $ 200 million and counting . even with that surprise monster hit , the month still couldn ' t keep pace with last year . compared to october , november looks a lot better with three films that could be monster hits : frozen , thor : the dark world , and the hunger games : catching fire . on the other hand , those are the only three movies with a 50 / 50 chance or better to top $ 100 million compared , while there were seven films that reached that milestone last november . the hunger games : catching fire should make more than last year ' s number one film , skyfall , but the depth last year could prove too much to deal with . 2013 might dip below last year ' s pace sometime during the month , but hopefully it won ' t stay there too long . more . . .
st . louis has a little - known nuclear past as a uranium - processing center for the atomic bomb . government and corporate negligence led to the dumping of manhattan project uranium , thorium , and radium , thus contaminating north st . louis suburbs , specifically in two communities : those along coldwater creek , where residents have high rates of very rare cancers , birth defects , and various autoimmune disorders that are potentially linked to ionizing radiation poisoning ; and in bridgeton , adjacent to the west lake - bridgeton landfill , where an uncontrolled subsurface fire has been moving toward an area where the radioactive waste was buried . just moms stl , a group of mothers - turned - advocates , believes their communities are being poisoned and demands that the government either fully remove the waste or permanently relocate residents living nearest the landfill . at the same time , the grassroots organization coldwater creek — just the facts please is working to educate the community and healthcare professionals and to promote community inclusion in the radiation exposure compensation act . “atomic homefront” — from hbo documentary films — spotlights these citizen advocates , mostly women , who have mobilized to get answers , creating a powerful coalition that continues to fight for environmental justice .
movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75 % or higher after a set amount of reviews ( 80 for wide - release movies , 40 for limited - release movies , 20 for tv shows ) , including 5 reviews from top critics .
the screenplay for this violent retro schlock was written by sylvester stallone , and the movie feels like something out of the early eighties .
the deeper we go into this story , the more ridiculous the coincidences and plot twists .
everyone cast against type . everyone breathtakingly bad , reciting dialogue by sylvester stallone that begs for a
mute
button .
by making statham a regretful lawman , it neutralizes his main talent , effectively neutering him . it also telegraphs the kind of mostly watered - down movie we ' re about to see .
. . . a summation of action scenes , almost without rhyme or reason . [ full review in spanish ]
what sets the movie apart is the performance of franco . his turn as gator elevates the affair .
statham is not the english clint eastwood yet , but if someone fancied calling him dirty jason . . . who knows ?
you see the house ? that ' s my fuckin ' house , anyone who comes around it again will find me standin ' in it .
you see the house ? that ' s my fuckin house , anyone who comes around it again will find me standing in it . ' '
you see the house ? that ' s my fuckin house , anyone who comes around it again will find me standing in it . '
during a police raid on a drug den , there is sight of criminals being shot . there is also a scene in which a man has to fight off several attackers , resulting in some sight of bloody injuries . at one point a gun goes off during a struggle , causing a woman to fall to the floor with blood on her face and body .
there is frequent of use of strong language ( ' f * * k and motherf * * ker ' ) , as well some milder bad language ( eg ' ass ' , ' shit ' , ' bitch ' ) .
in one scene a man and woman engage in rear entry sex against a car .
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a former dea agent moves his family to a quiet town , where he soon tangles with a local meth druglord .
jermaine fowler and omari hardwick of sorry to bother you take us back in time to the worst jobs of their careers .
want to share imdb ' s rating on your own site ? use the html below .
a thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double - crossed by his crew and left for dead . assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside , he looks to hijack the score of the crew ' s latest heist .
mei , a young girl whose memory holds a priceless numerical code , finds herself pursued by the triads , the russian mob , and corrupt nyc cops . coming to her aid is an ex - cage fighter whose life was destroyed by the gangsters on mei ' s trail .
homeless and on the run from a military court martial , a damaged ex - special forces soldier navigating london ' s criminal underworld seizes an opportunity to assume another man ' s identity - - transforming into an avenging angel in the process .
follows an elite hit man as he teaches his trade to an apprentice who has a connection to one of his previous victims .
a tough cop is dispatched to take down a serial killer who has been targeting police officers .
when his mentor is taken captive by a disgraced arab sheik , a killer - for - hire is forced into action . his mission : kill three members of britain ' s elite special air service responsible for the death of his sons .
when a las vegas bodyguard with lethal skills and a gambling problem gets in trouble with the mob , he has one last play . . . and it ' s all or nothing .
bishop thought he had put his murderous past behind him , until his most formidable foe kidnaps the love of his life . now he is forced to complete three impossible assassinations , and do what he does best : make them look like accidents .
frank martin puts the driving gloves on to deliver valentina , the kidnapped daughter of a ukrainian government official , from marseilles to odessa on the black sea . en route , he has to contend with thugs who want to intercept valentina ' s safe delivery and not let his personal feelings get in the way of his dangerous objective .
professional assassin chev chelios learns his rival has injected him with a poison that will kill him if his heart rate drops .
an fbi agent seeks vengeance on a mysterious assassin known as
rogue
who murdered his partner .
frank is hired to
transport
packages for unknown clients and has made a very good living doing so . but when asked to move a package that begins moving , complications arise .
phil broker is a former dea agent who has gone through a crisis after his actions against a biker gang went horribly wrong and it cost the life of his bosses son . he is recently widowed and is left with a 9 year old daughter , maddy . he decides to quit the turbulent and demanding life of thrill for maddy ' s sake and retires to a small town . his daughter fights off a boy who is bullying her at school , and this sets in motion a round of events that end in his direct confrontation with the local meth drug lord . his past history with the biker gang also enters the arena , making matters more complex . but he has a mission in his mind to protect his daughter and he is ready to pay any cost that it demands .
rated r for strong violence , pervasive language , drug content and brief sexuality .
cyrus hanks has a tattoo of a one percent on the right side of his neck , the same as the one percenters bike gang ' s tattoo in the movie 21 jump street ( 2012 ) .
' s character is credited as
sheriff keith rodrigue
but his uniform ' s name plate says
rodriguez
.
while this may not be a great movie , and it had some boring spots , it definitely delivers on action , what i ' m sure most of us came to see . jason statham is bad * * s as usual , kicking a * * and taking names like it ' s nobody ' s business . james franco is great as the main bad guy . izabela vidovic was also great as statham ' s character ' s daughter , i can definitely see her appearing in many more movies in the future . i liked how it seems like the whole town is in on something , conspiring against statham ' s character for whatever their reasons are , i was really interested to see what was going to happen next . while not perfect , this is pretty much your typical jason statham movie ( that ' s a good thing ) , with a nice father - daughter relationship thrown in . worth watching for anyone who enjoys watching jason statham repeatedly beating the crap out of various assorted scumbags .
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jason statham squares off against poor white trash in an old sylvester stallone script that should have stayed on the shelf . twitter
jason statham , james franco and winona ryder star in the script penned by sylvester stallone , originally pitched as the final chapter to the rambo saga .
the ham - fisted script , based on a novel by chuck logan , was written some years ago by none other than sylvester stallone as a prospective final chapter to the rambo saga . the way it ' s turned out here is more reminiscent of some bad good - ol ' - boy 1976 melodrama that could have starred jan - michael vincent and joe don baker and involved rednecks mightily suspicious of the outsider who ' s come to live in their midst .
a couple of years later , broker is living with his bright young 10 - year - old daughter maddy ( isabela vidovic ) in rural rayville , la ( a real town , conveniently just down the road a piece from that hollywood of the south , shreveport ) . her mother having died the year before , maddy has been receiving self - defense tips from her macho dad , and while he ' s trying to figure out whether to settle on an east end or southern accent , she retaliates to bullying from a schoolyard fatso by punching him out .
fatso ' s skinny mother cassie ( kate bosworth ) doesn ' t cotton to this at all , even though her kid started it , and when she can ' t get her no - account husband ( frank grillo ) to exact justice , she sics her brother gator on broker , which means trouble since gator is the meanest and wiliest creature in the bayou as well as its most prolific drug dealer .
since his house sits vulnerably in the middle of nowhere and the locals clearly haven ' t been taught how to let go of a grudge - - ”can ' t you go over there and do something ! ? ” cassie screams at her brother—broker mans up and apologizes for his daughter ' s brutality . the down - home boys respond to this gentlemanliness by repeatedly trying to beat broker up . this results in a succession of fight scenes—always with multiple guys ganging up on him - - so incoherently staged and shot that you don ' t even get a clear view of statham doing what he does best , which is to roll his kick - boxing , martial arts and punching skills into entertainingly bone - crunching mayhem .
stallone ' s milking of the child endangerment angle is shameless ; this is script - writing by diagram , with cassie and her clan blowing everything preposterously out of proportion just to create a melodramatic threat that will rouse broker to action in protecting his daughter . most of the baddies are such bottom - feeders that you know they pose no real threat and that includes winona ryder ' s former biker girl who gets roped into the plot against the two interlopers .
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urltoken
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' s ambitious misstep , the star has some nice , relaxed moments with onscreen daughter izabela vidovic , and gets to fulfil half his audience ' s fantasies in wiping the smirk from james franco ' s face .
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phil broker has had enough of the demanding duties of a dea agent . he brings his young daughter to a small town , looking for a quiet life . but people in this town , as he learns , don ' t easily forgive any past transgressions - - such as when his daughter fights off a bully at school . this attracts the wrath of the bully ' s uncle , a meth cooker and dealer , and his gang . things become dicier when people involved in the last major bust he participated in , track him to the small town . but phil has a secret : he ' s a dark occult wizard who can wave his hands and bespeak the terrible words of darkest sorcery :
hazafa kyahapp !
and afflict people with the dreaded and fearsome halfa kadapp disease . against such sorceries , mere men are helpless . now phil is angry , and ready to unleash the plague of halfa kadapp disease against those who would try to get at him and his beloved daughter .
dea agent phil broker goes undercover as a biker in a gang led by danny t . after the dea invade the bar the bikers reside in , danny and his son jojo flee . though danny is arrested , jojo is shot by phil and commits suicide by cop . phil later on quits the dea . two years later , phil and his daughter maddy move to a small town , where maddy ' s deceased mother grew up , and phil begins a contracting business with his friend teedo . maddy goes to the local school and gets into an altercation with her classmate , teddy klum . maddy breaks teddy ' s nose and phil is called in by school counselor susan , along with teddy ' s parents cassie and jimmy . phil gets into a fight with jimmy and an enraged cassie asks her brother , the drug dealer morgan bodine , to scare phil .
phil defeats three fo gator ' s men at a gas station . gator later on enters phil ' s house and steals maddy ' s cat and stuffed animal . while searching the house , gator discovers phil to be a former cop and the man responsible for danny ' s capture . teddy befriends maddy and is invited to her birthday party , but nevertheless , gator contacts his ex - girlfriend sheryl about broker , who in turn informs danny ' s lawyer , who tells an imprisoned danny . cyrus hanks , a hitman for danny ' s gang , decides to kill phil . phil confronts gator and later on enters his house , but is captured by gator ' s thugs . however , phil escapes and returns to his house , where he asks teedo to help him and maddy escape the town .
cyrus ' crew arrives at phil ' s house and a fight ensues . maddy is hidden in the basement while phil and teedo take out cyrus ' gang . however , teedo is shot by cyrus , who is impaled by phil . maddy is then abducted by sheryl and phil chases after the two using a police car . cassie and sheryl arrive at gator ' s warehouse , and a booby trap is set off , causing the warehouse to explode . cassie is shot by gator , who flees onto a bridge , followed by phil . phil ' s car flips over and gator uses the opportunity to attempt to shoot him , but is distracted by maddy . phil then defeats gator , but spares his life . gator and sheryl and arrested while cassie and teedo are hospitalized . phil later on visits danny in prison , telling him that when danny gets out , he will be waiting for him .
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minamata : the victims and their world ( 水俣 患者さんとその世界 , minamata : kanja-san to sono sekai ) is a japanese documentary made in 1971 by noriaki tsuchimoto .

it is the first in a series of independent documentaries that tsuchimoto made of the mercury poisoning incident in minamata , japan .

minamata : the victims and their world

minamatathe victims and their world ( minamatakanja - san to sono sekai ,  dir . tsuchimoto noriaki )
minamata : the victims and their world , dvd , b & w , 120 min . , 1971 . more information at urltoken .
one of the monuments of japanese documentary , minamata : the victims and their world played at many international festivals , winning an award at locarno .
minamata : the victims & t . . . has been added to your cart
celebrated as a masterpiece of documentary , minamata follows the victims of minamata disease , japan’s most notorious case of environmental pollution , in their struggle for recognition and compensation .
in the afternoon , delegates visited the grounds and the minamata disease archive and municipal museum , and had the opportunity to hear minamata disease victims share their story and met with local civil society , government and industry groups .
“but governments around the world cannot be asked to implement the lessons from minamata if those same lessons remain unresolved in minamata , ” digangi cautioned . digangi urged the following actions in minamata :
minamata : the victims and their world is the first in a series of documentaries that tsuchimoto made documenting the plight of the victims of minamata disease , their families , and their fight for redress . minamata disease takes its name from the city in kumamoto prefecture where the disease was identified in 1956 . the disease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning . the local chemical factory run by the chisso corporation polluted minamata bay and the shiranui sea with industrial waste water containing the highly poisonous chemical compound methylmercury between 1932 and 1968 .
in august this year , a ceremony was held in europe to commemorate the centennial of the start of world war i . i was moved to see the heads of states of countries which had fought one another as enemies in two world wars , world war i and world war ii , coming together in one place and sharing their hopes of building a peaceful world in the future .
noriaki tsuchimoto , the director of “minamata , ” who is a stranger to this observer , and a fairly large complement of associates shot their black‐and‐white footage in minamata , its environs and osaka in 1971 , largely in question‐and‐answer sessions with victims or their survivors .
trailer for noriaki tsuchimoto ' s award - winning documentary , minamata : the victims and their world , a work follows the victims in their struggle for recognition and compensation for suffering from minamata disease , japan ' s most notorious case of environmental pollution . this is one of the monuments of japanese documentary . part of the documentaries of noriaki tsuchimoto series from zakka films .
the following is a report of the situation of victims and their families in 1978 , 15 years after the miike explosion .
ishimure’s own sustained fight for the rights of minamata patients and their families has also inspired environmental activisim .
the day’s program started with a remembrance to the victims of minamata disease at the minamata eco - park . this park is built on fill , some of which is confined mercury - contaminated sludge removed from minamata bay . participants laid a floral tribute at the cenotaph for minamata disease victims and the ministerial delegates took part in a tree planting ceremony .
minamata revolta peoples quest for life ( minamata ikkiisho o tou hitobito ,  dir . tsuchimoto noriaki )
in the small town of minamata in kyushu , far from the metropolitan center , the fertilizer company chisso built a factory to take advantage of cheap labor and commenced dumping mercury - filled wastewater into the nearby sea . soon residents began exhibiting symptoms of a mysterious illness , a happening that would eventually develop into the worst case of environmental pollution in postwar japan . noriaki tsuchimoto visits the patients and their families who sued chisso and listens to their voices . his camera gently lifts the veil that had obscured them and reveals their reality . minamata : the victims and their world is impressive in how it stands on the side of the patients , not only providing a collage of individual portraits , but also an understanding of the their everyday lives . one of the monuments of japanese documentary , minamata : the victims and their world played at many international festivals , winning an award at locarno .
with the exception of a few resistance movements that had their roots in the turbulent times before the second world war , pollution victims have only been able to organize in the last 20 years or so . however , there are still many disaster victims who have not yet been able to understand the cause of their problems nor take any corrective action , and in such instances the related destruction simply continues , claiming more and more victims .
“the mercury treaty is particularly connected to minamata because it specifically calls on governments around the world to learn and apply the lessons from the minamata tragedy to prevent mercury poisoning in the future . unfortunately , the original tragedy is still not resolved . ”
the extent of the damage done to the victims of polluted environments will have greatly differing results for individual people , as secondary problems related to their living situation and personality bring their varying forces to bear .
the introduction to the german translation speaks of minamata as a household name not only in japan but “all over the world” [ hijiya - kirschnereit , 7 ] .
this is a list of ideological utopias , against conservatism , that victory of the current regressive world . especially those that failed because the world is below possibilities and beyond the material . material world and of film too , ie , movies that combines the political matter with the matter that films are built of .
minamata’s people continue in the midst of this waiting . in contrast to minamata : the victim and their world ’s steady accumulation of revelations building towards catharsis , the shiranui sea works structurally through restoration , with the sense that humanity itself is self - healing . a visit to an institution organized for rehabilitating minamata disease youth shows teenagers practicing basic arithmetic and learning to walk with crutches , while images from minamata : the victims and their world appear of the same young people as near - catatonic just a few years prior . a nurse laughs while recalling being surprised at a young male patient pinching her bottom and discovering his show of desire to be a sign of progress .
the body of work tsuchimoto devoted to the victims , their families and their surroundings encompassed 17 films , of which minamata : the victims and their world is the most widely known . tsuchimoto isn’t afraid to let his camera roll for extended shots of afflicted patients , with results that are alternately harrowing , tender and deeply sad . he also commits himself to the texture and details of the everyday lives of the people of minamata : a striking sequence shows an octopus fisherman trudging through shallow water , the many - tentacled bundle of his catch dangling behind him on a rope . in such scenes , the film suggests life continuing and the possibility of renewal .
as potential victims become victims in reality , the situation gives rise to an ever - widening circle where people are given neither relief from the problem nor monetary compensation for their suffering . these people simply give up .
in the small town of minamata in kyushu , far from the metropolitan center , the fertilizer company chisso built a factory to take advantage of cheap labor and commenced dumping mercury - filled wastewater into the nearby sea . soon residents began exhibiting symptoms of a mysterious illness , a happening that would eventually develop into the worst case of environmental pollution in postwar japan . noriaki tsuchimoto visits the patients and their families who sued chisso and listens to their voices . his camera gently lifts the veil and reveals their reality . minamata : the victims and their world is impressive in how it stands on the side of the patients , not only providing a collage of individual portraits , but also an understanding of their everyday lives .
these changes were also caused by the manner in which victims were treated by the offending industry , by governmental organs , by medical doctors , and by the mass media , and they became more obvious as the negotiating process between the company and the victims progressed . the offending companies would usually use negotiations methods that aggravated the patients and increased their nervous tension . the government and the medical profession were only interested in maintaining corporate profitability and in protecting their professional status . the mass media treated the victims as objects of curiosity , showing an absolute minimum of sensitivity for their plight .
their imperial highnesses the crown prince and princess , prince and princess akishino , mr . and mrs . kuroda
minamata : the victims and their world opens with title cards contextualizing the situation . minamata disease—whose symptoms include restricted vision , damaged motor skills , and frequently death—was first diagnosed in 1953 , and then declared a fifty - three - victim epidemic in 1956 . medical research soon showed that minamata residents were growing sick ( sometimes even in the womb ) from wastewater and poisoned seafood . the chemical plant of the prosperous chisso corporation , minamata’s economic lifeblood , had been responsible for dumping untreated mercury into the water , and in 1959 the victims and their families reached a reparations agreement with the corporation , part of which stipulated that no further legal or fiscal damages could be sought . meanwhile , human damage continued : by 1970 , 121 victims ( 46 of them dead ) had been officially diagnosed , with many more sick unofficially .
with the compounding of all these environmental problems , local communities become the victims . in the ashio copper - mine incident , after a long history of protest . the results were the destruction of vast areas of farmland , the debilitation of countless victims and their families , and finally the creation of villages without inhabitants . in the areas around minamata city where some of the victims have been restructuring their lives with the help of support groups , human relationships have been so badly ruptured that there is no hope of repair .
“years since its first appearance , noriaki tsuchimoto’s seminal minamata : the victims and their world has lost no measure of its power to shock , enrage , and inspire . a landmark of socially - engaged documentary , minamata continues to sound a global alarm about the human and environmental consequences of industrial pollution , searingly evoked through tsuchimoto’s patient , compassionate lenz . ” ——john gianvito , filmmaker , associate professor / emerson college
on friday morning , the conference of plenipotentiaries continued to hear country statements about the adoption and signing of the minamata convention on mercury . many countries paid tribute to the victims of minamata disease , underscoring the significance of the minamata convention for contributing to the sound management of mercury . countries also conveyed their gratitude to the government of japan for hosting the conference , and to inc chair fernando lugris for steering the negotiations to a successful completion .
“with the minamata name comes a special responsibility – and an opportunity to take actions so that the name minamata is not only associated with a tragedy , but becomes a positive model in the resolution of the world’s worst case of mass mercury poisoning , ” digangi continued .
katsuaki miyamoto , mayor of minamata , said that because economics took precedence over life and the environment , humans and many other creatures lost their lives . he declared the minamata convention a major step for humankind and urged its swift entry into force .
disclaimer : as i wrote few days back on twitter , i’ll kick off 2015 with a little experiment . i’ve translated ( and partly rewritten ) in english my post on minamata : the victims and their world . as english is my second language , inevitably some subtleties and nuances of the original italian piece are probably lost . feedback and / or suggestions are welcome .
in the situations surrounding the infant deaths from the morinaga arsenic milk incident , the mentally destabilizing impact on the families involved was very great indeed . the mothers felt guilty about having fed their babies the poisoned formula , and suffered both because of this and as victims in their own right .
until this great film , the french stuck to the official second world war myth in which plucky resistance to the nazis and vichy was the rule and collaboration the exception .
minamata incident terrified not even us but also whole world . we started awareness campaign in 1983 in sri lanka . several effected persons visited sri lanka and they explained how they suffer from the minamata disease . mercury pollution has given harmful lesson for mankind .
participants were treated to a lunch prepared by minamata community members and had the opportunity to learn about the many activities that have made minamata the first eco - capital of japan .
masami ogata , minamata disease municipal museum storyteller , shared his and his family’s suffering , including his struggle to be certified as a minamata disease victim .
tsuchimoto believed he could honor minamata’s victims by recognizing their struggles as belonging to the larger problem of worldwide pollution poisoning many people like them . for the filmmaker , it was necessary not only to know what was happening , but also to understand why . he followed minamata : the victims and their world with three ninety - minute - long medical films , collectively called minamata disease : a trilogy ( 1974 , and currently unavailable for home viewing ) . in each film , doctors explained different aspects of the disease’s symptoms and development ; in each case , tsuchimoto requested that the doctors explain themselves in terms that he could understand , believing that this would enable viewers to understand as well .
during the past year , their majesties continued to strengthen the ties with the diplomatic corps serving in tokyo . they invited to tea the newly appointed ambassadors and their spouses , representing 15 countries , and to luncheon the ambassadors and their spouses who had been in japan for three years or longer , representing 16 countries , and granted farewell audiences to ambassadors and their spouses from 13 countries upon completion of their assignments . her majesty joined his majesty in meeting japanese ambassadors and their spouses departing for overseas posts in 45 countries . they also invited to tea ambassadors and their spouses returning to japan from 51 countries , and heard accounts of their experiences in the countries to which they had been assigned .
damrosch , david . what is world literature ? princeton : princeton university press , 2003 . print .
in general , texts labeled “world literature” have been translated into more than just one or two languages .
the opportunities to see japanese documentaries outside of the archipelago are really few , and usually restricted to film festivals , especially when these works were shot in 16mm or 35mm . it is thus noteworthy that minamata : the victims and their world , together with the shiranui sea and other tsuchimoto’s works , is available on dvd with english subtitles through the dedicated work of independent label zakka films . ( special thanks to ono seiko and tsuchimoto motoko )
some of these groups support members who have become victims of environmental disaster , providing back - up support to compensation demands made by the victims themselves . if these support groups are effective , there is a possibility of reducing the extent of the damage done , regardless of the victims ' social group .
minamata : the story of the poisoning of a city , and of the people who chose to carry the burden of courage .
a documentary about the plight of the victims of minamata disease , which was caused by the ingestion of fish containing abnormal amounts of mercury released into the sea by a fertilizer factory owned by the chisso company .
when one family member is sick , all the members suffer . in the case of the minamata disease , there were instances where many members of a single family became victims and suffered some degree of debility . husbands would eat the fish caught from the bay , the wives would be involved in fishing and would eat the same tainted fish , and then the children , while still in their mother ' s womb , would also become poison victims .
the heroic qualities of characters make synchronization of the folk tale and the films . first of all , there is a leader of heroes in both films . a leader , however , is not the main focus , but fulfills the important role of decision - maker . although there are no mythical hero like momotaro in the folk tale , senior male in minamata : the victims and their world and momotaro in momotaro sea eagle ignite the beginning of the journey of the heroes . there are several heroic aspects which can be found through the groups of heroes in the films . a notion that heroes do not act for sake of their merit , but to help innocent people . both films present this notion of heroic quality before the journey begins . in minamata : the victims and their world , the villagers proclaim that they are rising for sake of people who suffers and will be suffering if the problem does not resolve . another heroic characteristic that both films highlight is the supportive attitude of common people . a hero cannot be defined as “good” without acknowledgement and support of people . though the heroes help powerless common people , without support of people they cannot exist . once again , both films present the relationship between the heroes and supporters . the heroes in momotaro sea eagle are supported by the group of mechanics which can be identified as non - military personnel , the commoners . in fact , the film focuses on the bond between soldiers and mechanics more than a leader . in minamata : the victims and their world , the other village inviting villages of minamata to reception , the farewell of villagers at the train station before the heroes depart to the journey , and even the donation of people in the city represent the strong recognition and support towards heroes of minamata
the polluting industry would often ignore the victims and their families , at the same time contributing to the further injury to the already compromised social milieu . the situation was often aggravated by the activities of governmental bodies , medical practitioners , and the community of scholars . the mass media was completely uncaring in its attitude to the victims , and the wider community looked down on them , wounding the sensibilities involved and acting to violate further the integrity of the violated families .
staff from the unep secretariat , un offices - nairobi and office for legal affairs posed with the minamata convention .
jean omer beriziky , prime minister of madagascar , signed the minamata convention on mercury .
after they worked in the darkroom together for many months , the book “minamata” was published in 1975 , and an exhibition of the photographs was held in the minamata town hall . mr . smith died in 1978 .
“i want to show about gene smith and minamata and i want to show minamata continues , and is not finished , ” he said . “no one is shooting there . the story continues . i must work . ”
the following article , “ishimure michiko and global ecocriticism , ” by karen thornber , is one of the chapters from this collection . thornber’s piece positions ishimure’s work within the larger context of world literature , while at the same time challenging us to consider broadening our conception of the meaning of “world literature . ”
from 1932 , the chisso chemical company ' s plant in minamata , japan , pumped highly toxic methyl mercury into minamata bay , which then accumulated in fish and shellfish eaten by locals .
cf . ishimure’s story of the sea of camellias , which describes the 1931 drought that devastated minamata .
the minamata disease was regarded as taboo within the affected community for a full 12 years after the first victims were discovered ; but at that point support organizations were established , for example those related to certain political parties , those supported by volunteer organizations , or those organized under traditional leadership orientations . these were victims ' organizations which confronted the polluting industry instead of being exploited by it , and in so doing were able to increase national understanding of the minamata disease . the organizations sought to define and isolate the polluter by calling the activities of the polluter socially sanctioned murder . the health of the various victims compromised by the disaster will never return to normal , but , through their activities and organizations , they have been able to avoid the total destruction of their own personalities . they have also managed to get a certain amount of compensation , which has gone a long way toward sustaining a decent life - style . however , many of the disease victims refused to belong to any of these groups and rejected the minamata disease victim label . these people remain in very dire straits economically , and regard the group - oriented victims with mixed feelings of envy and hatred .
often industrial circles , governmental administrative agencies , and medical professionals have made use of a technique designed to question the veracity of the victim ' s claim to patient status . in the instance of the minamata disease , government agencies , medical professionals and representatives of the polluting industry would without hesitation spread rumours that most of the damage victims seeking certification were only doing so in order to receive monetary compensation . these methods have not changed , although their effects have been resisted by the victims and their support groups . in reference to the miike coal - mine explosion victims , the supporters of the mining industry and industry - paid medical professionals would call the victim ' s medical problems the
union disease .
the labour union requested that this designation no longer be used , but this label continued to shape the understandings of the local community . the victims were further compromised by these tactics , and the government , along with the medical community and the advocates of industry , combined into a biaxial power dedicated to further striking down the various victims of industrial wastage .
fumio kishida , minister of foreign affairs , japan , signed the minamata convention on mercury .
wylbur simuusa , minister of foreign affairs , zambia , signed the minamata convention on mercury .
while many of the conflicts around the world have been repeated in the name of retaliation of one form or another , i feel great respect for the japan war - bereaved families association , which has consistently engaged in activities aimed towards a peaceful world , free of war . we must realize their ardent wish for peace , born of their own painful experiences . to that end , i believe it is important for all of us today who are enjoying the benefits of peace to continue to make every effort to nip the buds of conflict and suffering both in japan and abroad , and to always aspire strongly towards peace in the world .
during the past year , their majesties made official and private regional visits to twenty - five cities , four towns , and one village in twelve prefectures in all , excluding their visits to the imperial villas for rest and recuperation .
, the international ngo ipen said today . speaking in minamata on the eve of a diplomatic conference in kumamoto that will adopt the “minamata convention , ” senior science and technical advisor for ipen , joe digangi , said :
the adverse effects of pollution - related diseases are different when the victims are breadwinners , as opposed to infants , as in the morinaga arsenic milk poisoning case , or the entire spectrum from infants to old people , as in the minamata disease .
in the years following , tsuchimoto presented his minamata work as educational films on travels throughout the world , including a mid - 1970s visit to first nation communities in canada who had suffered an outbreak similar to minamata disease . he would also periodically return to making films about minamata , completing fifteen in total by the time of his death . ( a sixteenth was subsequently made from some of his unused footage by motoko tsuchimoto , his wife and frequent editor . ) his goal in doing so , he claimed , was to leave records of the area’s suffering and development . “the history of the minamata disease is not yet over , ” he said in 2006 , at a time when chisso was still paying reparations to victims and their families ( as it has continued to do until at least as recently as 2010 , the same year in which the united nations formed the minamata convention on mercury in order to lower worldwide emissions ) , and as minamata itself was turning from a fishing city into an industrial one . “nobody prevented the new lives to be born in fear of the minamata disease . ”
w . eugene smith and his wife , aileen miyoko smith , in their home . 1972 .
at the laputa animation festival in 2003 , 140 animators from around the world were asked to make a list of what they considered the 20 b . . .
minamata : the victims and their world is one of four documentaries by noriaki tsuchimoto ( 土本典昭 , 1928 - 2008 ) released by zakka films on dvd this year . it has optional english language subtitles and is accompanied by an essay by abé mark nornes ( u of michigan ) and film commentaries by sachiko mizuno ( kanazawa u ) . individuals can purchase this dvd for a reasonable price from independent film distributor film baby . institutions should contact zakka films directly for purchasing information
noriaki tshuchimoto’s documentary opens with a series of title cards that quietly lay out the bare facts of how the people of minamata came to be poisoned by mercury . the documentary then shifts its focus from the facts and figures to the stories of the victims and their families . fishermen talk of how they knew something was wrong when fish began behaving strangely in the sea and local cats that ate the fish started going insane . family members share the agonies endured by their loved ones before they died of the disease . doctors , teachers , and physiotherapists compare and contrast the illness to other known conditions such as cerebral palsy . the most chilling legacy is the stories of the children with congenital minamata disease , who were poisoned while in the womb . their physical and mental challenges are so great that there is little hope for rehabilitation .
music of the visual world : japanese indie animated shorts sunday , june 3 , 18 : 15 naxoshalle kino learn more when . . .
the most troubling disavowals of minamata disease come from residents of the minamata area who fear that acknowledging both the severity of water pollution and chisso’s culpability in instigating it will further destabilize the region’s already precarious economy . although a number of local government bodies take the disease seriously , many individuals chastise minamata patients and other activists for threatening the welfare of their town . the narrator includes an article from the october 19 , 1968 kumamoto edition of the mainichi shinbun ( mainichi newspaper ) describing the development of minamata city citizens’ conference . the conference prospectus chastens those residents who have been intent on having chisso admit its wrongdoing and modify its behavior ; conference participants support those afflicted by minamata disease but insist on continued cooperation with chisso .
a title taken from a british jazz revival’s classic , a song from a band called working week , which had two versions , the first in a record with the participation of tracey thorn , claudia figueroa and robert wyatt ( 7
bossa version ) . this is a list of ideological utopias , against conservatism , that victory of the current regressive world . especially those that failed because the world is below possibilities and beyond the material . material world and of film too , ie , movies that combines the political matter with the matter that films are built of . to better explain , some lyrics of that song : “a new world in the making , / it’s there for the… read more
crusading australian journalist pilger doesn ' t do balance or objectivity , but he shows ferocious persistence as he investigates the way things work in the globalised world .
loss of life and damage to health are the worst problems faced by pollution victims , though other problems related to these are also very serious .
damrosch continues , “ [ world literature helps us ] appreciate the ways in which a literary work reaches out and away from its point of origin” ( 300 ) .
please support the artists and filmmakers featured here by buying their work . to order from japan , i recommend using urltoken
the “and” in minamata : the victims and their world serves as a bridge connecting elements , which is how tsuchimoto essentially saw his own role . whether through glimpses of a microphone or simply the direction of a minamata resident’s gaze , the viewer is always aware of the filmmakers in the scene . unlike his peer documentarian shinsuke ogawa , who often filmed himself in radical sympathy with the rural people among whose ranks he lived , tsuchimoto gives the sense of himself as always being a visitor from tokyo , absorbing another’s circumstances without directly sharing them . the ethical distance he sought allows the film’s viewer to stand back and survey the scene in a position of empathy rather than sympathy , learning the context for a person’s situation along with him .
while the victims and their support groups were involved in efforts at self - recovery , external factors generated by the polluting industry , governmental administrators , medical professionals , scholars , pro - industry citizens ' groups , and the mass media more often than not had a negative impact .
“all around the world there are beautiful places like minamata where serious toxic pollution problems are being ignored because their effects happen quietly , over time , to one person at a time . in the future , when people learn about minamata , my hope is that they will not only learn about the terrible tragedy here , but they will hear about how a government and a people turned a terrible tragedy into something that made them proud instead of ashamed and sad , ” digangi concluded .
by quiet sequences that give the spectator a moment to pause and reflect . these quiet moments are often montages that capture the natural beauty of the landscape and the sea of the region . with each new story of pain and loss , the tension slowly builds until the film’s dramatic climax in which the victims and their families go to the chisso biannual shareholders meeting to confront the company president and demand that he publicly take responsibility for his company’s crimes against humanity and the environment .
personality changes constitute the third level of environmental pollution - related damage , and as such are inextricably bound up with the second level of damage , the destruction of health . some of the victims of environmental problems who suffered physiological disorders also suffered from changes in personality . but it is not clear whether these changes were a response to the sickness or were inherent in the pathology of the sickness . such cases are found among victims who suffered nerve damage , for example minamata disease ( mercury - poisoning ) patients , the carbon monoxide poisoning victims , and the victims of smon ( a medicine - induced iatrogenic disease ) . the symptom common to all of these patients is that they are easily angered , and this fundamental change in personality is endemic to the disease process .
even in the case of severe damage to health , victims ' suffering will depend on the impact of the disease on their life as a whole . this differing degree of response depends on differentials in social status and economic class . the serious symptoms displayed by the victims of environmental pollution are a great shock to the families involved , but whether or not the burden to the particular family is lightened or not will depend greatly on economic level and access to sources of information .
it was at this point that tsuchimoto and his crew entered minamata , with the goal of getting the victims to relate their struggles . the film ( originally 167 minutes long , and which zakka offers in the 120 - minute - long version that tsuchimoto made for international release ) consists largely of scenes in which the camera sits patiently facing a minamata villager , observing his or her health and sickness while listening to the person talk . an older woman tells how she repeatedly filed legal complaints after her husband’s minamata disease - related death with the hope of the state placing blame for it ; an older man describes how his wife has been driven so mad by the disease that their grandchildren call her “animal” ; a series of parents present their children , unable to talk or walk , with even the teenagers still mentally infantile . the overriding demand that the film’s minamata residents make is for recognition . the film leads up to an indelible climax in which a minamata activist group storms a public chisso shareholder’s meeting , and a woman who has lost both her parents to md screams to the company president , “you can’t buy lives with money ! ”
one would like to read more details in the literal english subtitles such as the specifics of the infection or the newspaper accounts of last july , which listed 428 victims , 69 , of whom died . an epilogue points out that the chisso company paid about £1 . 5‐million to 138 victims last year .
there are many types of damage to human health . in the case of the miike coal - mine explosion , carbon monoxide victims were reduced to human vegetables , a condition that is tantamount to being dead . the health of many other victims was also compromised to various degrees .
on wednesday , the government of japan hosted a field trip for delegates to minamata as part of the ceremonial opening of the diplomatic conference .
after japan ' s loss in the war , the wealthy , cultured , liberal anjo family have to give up their mansion and their way of life . they hold one last ball at the house before leaving . the . . . see full summary »
eventually this all led into a study group called the ao no kai . we started this group at iwanami , and in the midst of everyone going off in their own directions , two people who stuck their heads in were ogawa shinsuke and higashi yoichi . by that time kuroki kazuo and tsuchimoto noriaki were already established directors so their status was a little different .
lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you crew reveal their most soul - crushing jobs in our freewheeling interview .
manipulative ? yes , if it ' s manipulative to choose beautiful children to look into the camera , their faces alive with grief and confusion . these deeply felt images found their way to make a vital human connection .
in the post - second world war period the labour union movement , as the vanguard of the many mass movements seen in that difficult period , were very much this type of organization , and in 1955 when the morinaga arsenic milk poisoning case surfaced , or when the minamata disease appeared in 1956 , the general public did not think of these problems as violations of basic human rights . the victims and their families did not know what they could or should do when faced with the contamination of baby milk by arsenic or the poisoning of whole households by the mercury - tainted fish caught in minimata bay , after centuries of fishing in the same area with no sign of an environmental problem .
the film is particularly interesting for its use of sound . the lack of synch between the image and the soundtrack is initially distracting . sound was a big problem for low budget documentary filmmakers of the day as it was recorded separately from the image . the asynchronous sound provided tsuchimoto with the opportunity to play with the soundtrack in innovative ways . as his subjects tell us their stories , we are treated to montages of images of the dead , their families , and their homes . the a
the citation for ishimure reads in part , “in electing michiko ishimure to receive the 1973 ramon magsaysay award for journalism , literature and creative communication arts , the board of trustees recognizes her as the ‘voice of her people’ in their struggle against the industrial pollution that has been distorting and destroying their lives . ” urltoken
the shiranui sea—minamata series part ii , dvd , color , 150 min . , 1975 . more information at urltoken .
with nobuteru ishihara , minister of environment , japan , achim steiner , executive director of unep , presented the
pez - peste
statue to katsuaki miyamoto , mayor of minamata , for permanent display at the minamata disease municipal museum .
in these ways the social roles of the victims and the positions held by them in the families involved also determine to a great extent the degree of damage done to the family infrastructure . it cannot be said that when the breadwinner of the family becomes the victim of pollution , the strains on the family are greater than when a baby or child is the victim . it is generally understood that the differing familial roles held by the victims of pollution or industrial disaster result in differing levels and types of stress within the family .
yet rather than cooperate in subsequent investigations , for many years chisso did everything it could to deny its role in propagating this disease , including pumping wastewater under cover of night and prohibiting scientists from taking samples from the bay for examination . the narrator describes some chisso employees as sympathetic to the plight of minamata patients , even alerting residents of minamata to chisso’s plans to divert their wastewater channel to another location ; similarly , researchers from the chisso company hospital contribute to efforts to understand the disease better . and at its august 1967 meeting the chisso first union issued a declaration condemning its own failure to fight minamata disease and affirming its commitment to do so in the future . but for the most part , sea of suffering paints chisso as an absolute villain ; one that denies any connection between factory wastewater and minamata disease yet prohibits scientists from studying the wastewater ; one that does everything it can to avoid paying indemnities and instead continues to discharge poisonous effluent , thus expanding the number of people who may demand compensation ; and one that delays dispatching employees to visit hospitalized minamata patients until 1965 , more than a decade after the outbreak of the illness . the narrator comments : “looked at from today’s perspective , the noble and strong personality and the superior investigative research of dr . hosokawa [ one of the premier researchers of minamata disease ] into the outbreak and spread of minamata disease provides a fantastic contrast with all the attitudes [ and behaviors ] exhibited by the chisso corporation” ( 69 ) . throughout sea of suffering the narrator alternates references to chisso’s heartlessness with those to the dedication of medical researchers . it often is difficult for minamata doctors to understand their patients , since minamata disease makes speech a challenge , but the novel portrays physicians as doing whatever they can to assist those suffering from this disease . the narrator calls attention to the bonds that form between doctors and their patients and the trust the latter have in their physicians , except when they believe they are being used solely to further a doctor’s career .
tributes have been pouring in around the world for kaneto shindō ( 新藤 兼人 , 2012 - 2012 ) , who passed away last week at the age of 100 . . . .
sea of suffering underscores how national politicians and other government employees downplay if not disavow minamata disease . to be sure , the central government is depicted as initially being concerned about the illness . the narrator notes that in 1957 the ministry of education established the minamata disease comprehensive research group , a unit composed primarily not of chisso officials but instead of presumably impartial doctors from kumamoto university medical school . the group’s report identified organic mercury as the most likely cause of the disease and pointed to chisso’s practice of pouring untreated wastewater into minamata bay . despite these findings , the japanese government for many years did not prohibit chisso from continuing to discharge outflow , nor did it enact measures to clean polluted waters or to help those stricken with minamata disease . these disavowals of the significance of this illness marked the beginning of decades of frustrating struggles by minamata patients and their families , with both the central government and chisso .
on the basis of the bleak record poignantly and pointedly presented in “minamata , ” that statistic doesn ' t seem to be the answer to the terrible , perhaps portentous , problem of pollution .
this year saw much to celebrate , but we also experienced many heartbreaking events , such as torrential rainstorms and volcanic eruption . i offer my prayers for the souls of the victims and give my thoughts to the deep sadness of those who have lost family members and the pain of those whose family members have not yet been found . and to those who have faced endless difficulties on the volcano while helping and searching for the victims , prefectural officials , members of the self - defense forces , firefighters , police officers , medical personnel , and the health workers who have been constantly at the side of the families awaiting news of their loved ones , i also express my gratitude and deepest respect .
mr . smith had encouraged mr . ishikawa to take his own photographs , even while helping him with the grueling minamata project . mr . ishikawa became friends with many young people in minamata and kept in touch with several of mr . smith’s subjects in the following decades as he pursued his own career . although he traveled constantly , he decided in 2008 that he should document what had become of the surviving victims .
forces us to listen more closely to the words and to study the face of the speaker more carefully . although each family has their own individual tale of suffering and loss to tell , taken together one gets the sense of a community of simple , hardworking people who have been unjustly made into outcasts in the town where their families have lived and fished for generations . the story of their fight for justice is not only of historical import , but their determination against all odds is also inspiring for the many people who are today suffering at the hands of an unfeeling bureaucracy in the southernmost prefecture of tohoku .
on june 8 this year , his imperial highness prince yoshihito of katsura passed away . in deep sorrow , their majesties went into mourning for five days , sharing in the grief of the bereaved family . in the period immediately after his passing , their majesties visited his home and the akasaka east residence four times . after the funeral rites and the ceremony to mark the 100th day of his passing , they paid official visits to the toshimagaoka cemetery to pay their respects .
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most important , these conflicts exist—albeit often surreptitiously—within individuals . in the epilogue to rowing the eternal sea , the english adaptation of rowing the boat of the eternal world , ōiwa notes that for ogata the “solution” is “a return to a spiritual world on earth , in which everyone and everything has a place . it is a world in which life is respected , worshipped , and celebrated” ( 185 ) . yet despite ogata’s and his colleagues’ deep attachments to the nonhuman , despite ogata’s claim at the conclusion of rowing the eternal sea that “embraced by the mountains and sea / ego dissolves ; self and landscape are one , ” behaviors of local peoples do not conflict as drastically as might be supposed with the behaviors of outsiders that ogata and ōiwa criticize so harshly ( 175 ) . to be sure , the actions of local fishers rarely have as concentrated an impact on human and nonhuman health as those of large polluters ; the fishers do not exhibit anywhere near the same desire for wealth , technology , prestige , or power as do the chisso corporation , the japanese government , and many of their neighbors ( individuals particularly concerned with their financial futures ) . but even though they pride themselves on their humility , the fishers too are not without culpability .
if these touching scenes in a major portion of the film are subdued , “minamata , ” nevertheless , strongly implies and occasionally illustrates what appears to be big industry and governmental apathy before it builds to a literally riotous climax as the diseased and their sympathizers descend on a meeting in osaka of the impassive president and board of directors of the chisso company , , operators of the plant , to demand reparations and justice .
yet to date , although ishimure has been called the “japanese rachel carson , ” the impact of her work—unlike that of the american ecologist rachel carson ( 1907 - 1964 ) —has been confined primarily to japan . 7 sea of suffering generally is credited as one of the driving forces behind japan’s social activism surrounding minamata and other pollution diseases . to be sure , the novel has been criticized for being “fiction” and for not always adhering perfectly to the “truth . ” but it is through this novel that the voices of those suffering from minamata disease have been most powerfully heard—as the japanese literature scholar keiko kanai has discussed , many minamata activists have “cited [ sea of suffering ] as seminal in motivating them to fight . ” and some activists have stated explicitly that “the characters in [ sea of suffering ] are more real to them than the actual victims” ( making up for minamata ) . this latter statement might seem peculiar—characters more real than actual victims ? but in turning actual victims into characters , writers often make painful human experiences more accessible and in so doing promote and sustain engagement , most directly at home but also across linguistic and national borders . 8
in both rowing the boat of the eternal world and rowing the eternal sea ogata comments , “for me , [ the reclaimed land in minamata bay ] is in a word a place to apologize . it is a place to apologize not for others but for myself . it is a time to think of my own crimes” ( rowing the boat 156 ) . rowing the eternal sea elaborates on questions of individual and collective guilt . ogata asserts that even though he completely opposes chisso and its practices , he bears some responsibility for what happened in minamata :