A Tokyo cinema decided against showing a controversial documentary film by a Chinese director on Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine, citing the potential bother it may cause to other tenants in the same building, an official of movie theater operator T-Joy Co. said Tuesday.
"The film has been talked about so much that it may create trouble and we don't want to cause inconvenience to the building's tenants," a T-Joy official was quoted as telling Argo Pictures, a distributor of "Yasukuni" by resident Chinese director Li Ying.
Wald9 Cinema in Shinjuku Ward, operated by T-Joy, was among four cinemas in Tokyo scheduled to premiere the documentary on April 12, along with a few other cinemas in Osaka and Fukuoka.
The film tells the stories of people involved with Yasukuni who have varied feelings about the war and the shrine. Constitutional scholar Yasuhiro Okudaira of the University of Tokyo criticized the theater's decision, saying a cinema that decides against showing the documentary "consequently is endorsing the idea of those people opposed to its release and is depriving (the director) of freedom of expression."