Heads Up, Ears Down

This blog accurately identifies depictions of violence and cruelty toward animals in films. The purpose is to provide viewers with a reliable guide so that such depictions do not come as unwelcome surprises. Films will be accurately notated, providing a time cue for each incident along with a concise description of the scene and perhaps relevant context surrounding the incident. In order to serve as a useful reference tool, films having no depictions of violence to animals will be included, with an indication that there are no such scenes. This is confirmation that the films have been watched with the stated purpose in mind.


Note that the word depictions figures prominently in the objective. It is a travesty that discussions about cruelty in film usually are derailed by the largely unrelated assertion that no animals really were hurt (true only in some films, dependent upon many factors), and that all this concern is just over a simulation. Not the point, whether true or false. We do not smugly dismiss depictions of five-year-olds being raped because those scenes are only simulations. No, we are appalled that such images are even staged, and we are appropriately horrified that the notion now has been planted into the minds of the weak and cruel.


Depictions of violence or harm to animals are assessed in keeping with our dominant culture, with physical abuse, harmful neglect, and similar mistreatment serving as a base line. This blog does not address extended issues of animal welfare, and as such does not identify scenes of people eating meat or mules pulling plows. The goal is to itemize images that might cause a disturbance in a compassionate household.


These notes provide a heads-up but do not necessarily discourage watching a film because of depicted cruelty. Consuming a piece of art does not make you a supporter of the ideas presented. Your ethical self is created by your public rhetoric and your private actions, not by your willingness to sit through a filmed act of violence.

The Great Yokai War

The Great Yokai War (Yôkai daisensô). Takashi Miike, 2005.

😿 😿

Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set, Yokai Monsters Collection, released 2021. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 124 minutes.


Summary: Physical abuse to a small, affectionate sprite.


Details:

1) A herd of kitty-bunnies wearing acrylic v-neck sweaters is netted and devoured by a tractor-dumpster mechagodzilla yokai (13:02-13:05), except for one who escapes but is stung with a whip and tumbles down concrete stairs (13:12-13:18).

2) The little kitty-bunny (the yokai who rubs your shin, we learn) is later shown bleeding honey-mustard dipping sauce as a result of his whip injury, but goes through most of the film as a key member of the Hero Team.

3) The little fellow is physically abused, 1:19:14-1:20:25, including being held in a machine’s vice grip, struck with harsh physical blows, and ultimately thrown into the vat of eternal disgust.



This disk in the Yokai Monsters Collection also includes four short films by Miike, tangentially related to the feature film and free of animal violence:


• Short Drama of Yokai, Episode 1: Whose Hotcakes Are These? (2005, 6 minutes)

• Short Drama of Yokai, Episode 2: Who's the Most Annoying? (2005, 8 minutes)

• Another Story of Kawatoro, Part 1 (2005, 7 minutes)

• Another Story of Kawatoro, Part 2 (2005, 10 minutes)


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