“Bikuri,” said a moviegoer, using the Japanese term to mean “surprised.” She exclaimed that to a packed theater at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The woman was talking about "The Cove," a documentary she’d just watched, that tracks the dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan. The theater had just hosted Japan’s one and only screening of the award-winning documentary.

A still from film shows dolpins being driven towards Taiji.

It was a screening that almost didn’t happen. The Tokyo International Film Festival initially balked at the movie taking part in the festival, but eventually caved after international pressure. Watch a trailer for "The Cove"

But as cameras lined up to cover the Tokyo Film Festival’s showing of "The Cove," handlers threw their hands over camera lenses and ordered reporters to stop asking questions. Media crews were corralled into a fire escape saying the theater’s owner would not allow access to moviegoers on their property. The only access would be a tightly controlled question and answer session of festival goers and the filmmaker.

Such heightened sensitivity highlights the controversy surrounding the award-winning documentary that challenge’s Japan’s continued allowance of coastal whaling. "The Cove" follows the fishermen of Taiji, who for say they've hunted dolphin for meat for 400 years. CNN tracked the hunt last year, as fishermen in boats corralled the dolphins in from sea. Divers in the water chased and dragged them into the cove.

In only a few minutes. The water turned red with blood as the throats of the dolphins were slashed. Fishermen transported the carcasses onto boats and took them to a pier, where they were gutted. CNN found dolphin meat sold in local grocery stores.

Not all the dolphins were killed. Some were transported to holding areas where the town eventually sells them to aquariums around the world, a practice called “live capture.”

The movie calls the treatment of the dolphins in the cove inhumane, but also say the meat has high levels of mercury.

Japan’s government says the meat, like tuna, can contain mercury, but is not harmful if eaten in moderation. Japan allows approximately 20,000 dolphins killed each year, because the species is not endangered.

“The Japanese government is very keen on the resource maintenance, so that sustainability is maintained. Each country, each race, has its own traditions to be respected. The international community should cooperate while respecting each other’s traditions and eating habits,” said Yasuhisa Kawamura, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy press secretary.

Kawamura adds that in Western cultures, people have an emotional connection to dolphins, yet are able to hunt deer and eat cows. “Cows are cute, dolphins are cute,” he said.

"The Cove’s" filmmakers hope to change that mindset. Director Louie Psihoyos told the film fest’s crowd: “Now we have this movie called ‘The Cove’ and hopefully everybody in Japan will get the same information the government isn’t giving you.” Psihoyos made that comment in reference to what the film alleges is toxic levels of mercury in the dolphins.

After the screening, the cameras were promptly ejected from the theater’s property. CNN managed to grab one festival attendee, Kenkichi Takizawa. “People should watch this movie before they argue about this issue,” he said.

But with no future screenings and no distributor in Japan, few in Japan will even know the documentary was ever made.

NEW DELHI, India– The theater in New Delhi was packed. While "Slumdog Millionaire" has long since been released in the US, it opened here last weekend. The movie depicts the fate of three children who live in terribly difficult conditions in the slums of Mumbai. It follows them as love, violence and a television show changes their fate.

It is a very painful look at the lives of India's poor through the eyes of the poorest of the poor: children. Film critics here are mostly raving about the movie, but everyday Indians have reacted to the film with a range of emotions from happily entertained to fiercely angry.

There have been a couple of protests over the film since it opened. Some of the people who live in slums - and some who don't - felt the film was profiting off the suffering of others. Some were spitting mad that a foreign director took the liberty to show everything that is wrong in the country and not much that is right.

Even the name of the film itself has come under fire.

Protesters tore down movie posters in one of India's poorest states saying the use of the word "Slumdog" to describe people living in slums had again injured the poor. They say it is yet another hurtful name for those already struggling at the bottom.

Back in Delhi when I began asking the 20-something middle class Indians about their thoughts on the movie, they were frank: "That's India man, these are some of the realities of life here," one guy remarked.

Which is why some people said they just didn't want to see a film about the same sad stories they are faced with everyday. Watch more on "Slumdog Millionaire"

As the week progressed I revisited the theater where "Slumdog Millionaire" or "Slumdog Crorepati" (crorepati being the Hindi word for millionaire) was playing. During the week it was virtually empty.

The vast majority of people I've talked to were disturbed by the movie, saying it was both painful and uplifting. They pointed out faults but in the end recommended it, saying it was an interesting and entertaining film. Some, though, were pretty annoyed the world had seen a movie about India long before it was released where it was made.

The reaction here brings up a question that has long been debated: Do artists, this time filmmakers, have a responsibility to show balance, or should they be able to create their art freely even if it disturbs others?

What do you think?