Violence to Animals in Film: February 2025

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 Bare-Footed Kid

The Bare-Footed Kid (Chik geuk siu ji). Johnny To and Patrick Leung, 1993.

😿😿

Edition screened: Included in Arrow Shawscope: Volume Two Blu-ray box set, released 2022. Cantonese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

Summary: A man takes a small bird from its cage, crushes it in his hand, and throws it to the ground, 19:00-19:05.

Deadly Weapons

Deadly Weapons. Doris Wishman, 1974.

😸

Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Twilight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Senso

Senso. Luchino Visconti, 1954.

😿

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #556, released 2011. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.

Summary: A 30-second scene in a marketplace (1:26:27-1:26:52) includes a line of suspended cow carcasses and butchers with cleavers. This is in the background and the actors appear to be pantomiming. No blood, gore or details. At the end of the scene a man enters with several dead game bird. 1:26:27-1:26:52.

Shawscope: Volume Two

Shawscope: Volume Two. Various directors, 1978-1993.

😿 😿

Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray box set, released 2021. Mandarin and Cantonese languages with English subtitle. Cumulative runtime of feature films approximately 1,286 minutes.

Summary: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Disciples of the 36th Chamber, Martial Arts of Shaolin, The Boxer’s Omen, and Mad Monkey Kung Fu contain violence to animals. See individual titles for details.

The Arrow set includes many documentaries, interviews and commentaries, and fourteen feature films:

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, 1978, Liu Chia-Liang

Return to the 36th Chamber, 1980, Liu Chia-Liang

Disciples of the 36th Chamber, 1985, Liu Chia-Liang

Mad Monkey Kung Fu, 1979, Liu Chia-Liang

Five Superfighters, 1979, Lo Mar

Invincible Shaolin, 1978, Chang Cheh

The Kid with the Golden Arm, 1979, Chang Cheh

The Magnificent Ruffians, 1980, Chang Cheh

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, 1978, Chang Cheh

My Young Auntie, 1981, Liu Chia-Liang

Mercenaries from Hong Kong, 1982, Jing Wong