TOKYO -- Argo Pictures, distributor of the controversial docu "Yasukuni," says it is consulting its lawyers concerning a demand by Yasukuni Shrine officials issued Sunday to cut footage of the film.

Argo said it will respond within a two-week deadline given by the shrine, but will go ahead with planned screenings in Tokyo and elsewhere.

          Shrine officials complained that helmer Li Ying did not inform them that he was making a pic when he asked for permission to shoot at the shrine. "He did not follow proper procedure," they said in a statement on a shrine Web page. They are consequently asking that Li and Argo delete footage shot at the shrine. 

          Loft Plus One, a Tokyo music club, is planning to hold a private screening of the pic on Friday, inviting mainly right wing groups that have been attacking the pic. Argo is also holding a press screening of the pic on April 23 in Tokyo, but is planning no other special screenings of the pic in the city before "Yasukuni" begins its nationwide roll-out in May.

          The pic is currently skedded to open at 21 venues across Japan, but not Tokyo, where four theaters pulled the pic prior to its planned April 12 platform bow. One theater in Osaka also bailed, but a civic theater in the city later picked up the docu. Argo says it is in discussions with a Tokyo theater to show the pic, but has not finalized plans.

          Naoji Kariya, a swordmaker who is a major figure in the docu, has also asked that his footage be sliced. Argo has refused. The pic's supporters have claimed that Kariya was pressured by a lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to request the cuts.

          Chinese helmer Li spent ten years making "Yasukuni," a docu about the shrine, where millions of Japanese war dead are memorialized, including 'Class A' war criminals. The shrine has been a lightening rod of diplomatic and local controversy for decades. Opponents view it as a symbol of Japanese militarism, while defenders see it as repository of true Japanese values and beliefs, from reverence for the Emperor to defense of Japan's role in World War II as a noble crusade.

          Among those more or less in the latter camp are Lower House members belonging to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who are upset that the Agency for Cultural Affairs had underwritten "Yasukuni" to the tune of $75,000." Led by lawmaker Tomomi Inada, the group demanded that Argo set up a private screening so they could ascertain its "neutrality." Argo complied, on March 12, and 40 politicos attended.

          In early March, one Tokyo theater which had skedded the docu for an opening on April 12 cancelled, citing safety concerns. Then, on March 31 Argo announced that four more theaters -- three in Tokyo and one in Osaka -- had bailed on the April bow.

          "Yasukuni"'s defenders have claimed that pressure from Inada and her LDP cohorts encouraged the cancellations. The appearance of right-wing-organized sound trucks in front of theaters skedded to show the pic also reportedly persuaded nervous theater operators to pull the pic.

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