Looking forward to this documentary. Side note: I've recently become fascinated by the portrayal of bullies and bullying in Japanese film, especially in the work of Takashi Miike. 'Visitor Q' and 'Ichi the Killer' both have some pretty disturbing scenes, one of the most striking being the one where the kid is being beaten up because his father, a police officer, lost his gun. The other kids stand around him, kicking him and yelling, "give me my parents tax dollars back!" In fact, a whole genre of bully revenge movies has sprung up there over the last few years, in which a kid generally gets superpowers of some kind and takes revenge on the bullies that tormented him or her. 'The Machine Girl' is the example that springs to mind.

Being bullied is not a new phenomenon. In film? Look at some of Steve McQueen's best films. "Soldier in the Rain" written by William Goldman, "The Reivers", he was white trash, and even in "The Magnificent Seven" he was about to take a clerk job before being offered the Mexican job. The point is we need more little guys who can think and use basic martial arts to protect themselves!

I've seen what grown-ups can do in pre-school and in school to prevent bullying and to show good example. When I was a kid, everyone in pre-school and school should be treated the same. If the treatment didn't fit, it was you who was wrong, you who stood out as a single, strange individual. Grown-ups example was that this strangeness was something wrong. You were not allowed to stand out. Of course they didn't encourage bullying, but yet they were the ones starting to treat the child as something wrong. Today teachers look at individual needs and tell that it is okay to have things another way than others. There is less need to fit a pattern. I've seen this with my own kids, how they are treated in pre-school and school. And how quickly the teachers pick up if somebody are teased or bullied. So, yes, I think it is possible to have a bully-free society. But it is up to us grown-ups. And start when they are small children.

I'm looking forward to seeing this and am wondering if they'll touch upon how bullying can actually lead to more bullying. It also makes me want to go watch My Bodyguard, a film I know I have lying around here somewhere on DVD from the 80's with Matt Dillion as a bully. Strangely enough, I recall being bullied up through perhaps 9th grade. Not the entire time, but I was intelligent and quiet. I found myself standing up to it on several occasions, taking on a couple of people at once. The weird thing was, I've only thrown one punch my entire life. By 9th grade, I had found sports. Do people who play sports ever get bullied? I don't seem to ever notice. Anyway, I grew into my body and became an all-star in a couple of sports. The last time I was in LA, I had a number of people make comments to the contrary - the funniest being when I returned briefly to my hotel room and passed this group of big, stout guys - Harley guys is what I would call them as they had tattoos, shaved heads, long beards - they just have that aura about them that makes you want to mind your own biz. Anyway, as I approached them (my room was next to theirs) the biggest guy stops drinking his beer and says "fee, fi, fo fum, what fucking tree did you fall from?", all the others laughing. I smiled and said I was still trying to figure out that one myself. Truth was, I never considered how I might look from another person's POV. I can only see the world, physically at least, through my own - and here I was worried about these guys when they, in turn, were frightened by mine. Truly one of the more oddest moments of my life. And no, I don't have a conjoined twin growing out of the side of my head, lol. I'm 6'4 and, at the time, had been working out religiously and weighed 255 lbs. I was bigger than many NFL linebackers. Anyway, just thought I'd share - especially the bit on perspective. To this day I still look at photos of myself and most other people and feel shocked by how small they look. :)

I thought you were going to say "Poison Oak." And then just stare at them.