Browse our 2010 Film Guide

SCHOOL DAYS WITH A PIG

Buta gaita Kyoushitsu
Tetsu Maeda / Japan / 2008 / 106 min
In Japanese with English subtitles
Subtitles will be read aloud by an experienced reader

Mr. Hoshi, a young and energetic grade 6 teacher, wants his students to learn about the connection between life and food. He decides that in their final year of elementary school, the class will adopt a piglet and care for it over the course of a year, but at the end of the year, the pig will be eaten. The students eagerly accept the challenge. They name the piglet “P-Chan,” build a home for it, and take turns caring for it. The more attached they grow to P-Chan, the more difficult the question of the pig’s fate becomes.

Based on a true story that became a subject of national controversy in Japan, School Days With a Pig is a thoughtful and warmhearted engagement with issues of consumption, quality of life, and personal responsibility.

Themes: Decision making, respecting different perspectives, responsibility for raising an animal

Warning: images of children becoming emotional and crying while debating

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPAaT8MH8E4

Also screens on Tuesday April 13 at 10:00am, Vancity Theatre

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