The distributor of the controversial film "Yasukuni" has sounded out a theater in Kochi about showing it despite honoring an earlier request not to do so out of consideration for a person featured in the film, the theater's owner said Saturday.
The owner of the Atago theater, Asao Mizuta, 58, said distributor Argo Pictures on Thursday proposed screening the documentary in August or September. But Mizuta said he will not show it unless Naoji Kariya, a local sword maker who appears in the film, agrees to the screening.
Kariya, 90, who lives in Kochi Prefecture, has reportedly been dissatisfied with the film because the way Chinese director Li Ying portrayed him differs from what the director said he would do before shooting. Kariya, who made swords for Yasukuni Shrine, is reportedly trying to get his scenes deleted.
The Atago had planned to show the film in late May, but Argo Pictures has asked it to refrain from doing so for the time being.
The film is about events and people connected with the controversial Shinto shrine, which was erected in Tokyo to honor the war dead. The shrine served as Japan spiritual pillar during the war and is seen as a symbol of its militarist past.