A Montreal distributor has successfully appealed a restrictive rating by the Ontario Film Review Board.

Claude Gagnon’s Kamataki, which won five awards including best director at last year’s Montreal World Film Festival, was slapped with an 18A rating by the OFRB in late March, meaning any minors admitted to the film would have to be accompanied by an adult.

The rating stood in contrast to Quebec’s G rating, which included an advisory that the film is ‘not suitable for young children.’ On April 4, Montreal-based distributor Filmoption International successfully appealed the OFRB decision. The new rating for Kamataki is 14A, which means moviegoers under 14 must be accompanied by an adult.

‘Naturally, I was upset,’ says director Gagnon of his reaction to the initial rating. ‘When you make a film you want it to reach as wide an audience as possible. I thought they were joking. I mean, this 18A is the same rating that Basic Instinct 2 got. I fell on my ass when I heard this.’

The Canada/Japan copro is the story of a man (Matt Smiley) who, after a botched suicide attempt, ends up living overseas with his uncle. OFRB chair Janet Robinson says the original rating was due to one sexual scene and repeated use of the F word. The dialogue is in both English and Japanese.

‘In Quebec, the F word doesn’t mean as much as it does in Ontario,’ Robinson says. ‘There are multiple ‘fucks’ in this movie.’ Robinson says that the appeal was successful because the film has clear artistic value. ‘Obviously, this is a purely subjective call,’ she says. ‘But we felt, on second look, that the film has strong artistic merit.’

Kamataki opens in Ontario on April 21.