Bashing (film)

Bashing
Original Japanese release poster
Directed by	Masahiro Kobayashi
Produced by	Masahiro Kobayashi Naoko Okamura
Written by	Masahiro Kobayashi
Starring	Fusako Urabe
Music by	Hiroshi Hayashi
Cinematography	Koichi Saito
Edited by	Naoki Kaneko
Release date	2005
Running time	82 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Bashing (バッシング, Basshingu^?) is a 2005 film by Masahiro Kobayashi. It premiered at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Bashing went on to win special jury award at the Fajr Film Festival and won grand prize at Tokyo FILMeX.

Yuko Takai and a few other Japanese political activists in the Middle East were kidnapped and used as hostages. Upon returning to Japan, Yuko is mistreated for basically "making ripples in the water;" in other words, for not committing suicide and for making the Japanese look weak. This story is based on the real affairs of the kidnapping of three Japanese political activists by Islamic extreme terrorists in Iraq in April 2004. Yuko Takai is a model of Nahoko Takato, a political activist, who was also harshly criticised by almost all Japanese.