Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Harry flipped out a little while ago when he first saw the trailer for THE SINKING OF JAPAN, and I’ll admit... I had fun with those trailers. Disaster movies almost never really deliver, though, so consider me cautiously curious. Now one of our readers has seen it and has this to say:
Hello Harry, cdoreilly here in Tokyo where Nihon Chinbotsu aka The Sinking of Japan, has just been released. Saw that you posted a trailer a few weeks back but nobody has given you a review yet, so I thought Id let you know what I thought without too many spoilers.
And for the record I havnt seen the original flick from the 70s, nor read the novel on which it is based.
The basic story of Nihon Chinbotsu is not terribly original but pretty cool stuff: seismic activity in the Pacific Ocean means that the plate on which Japan lies is slowly sinking into the sea, resulting in volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis etc before the islands finally disappear under the water. Initial estimations set the date of submersion as 50 years in the future, giving the government time to develop a plan of evacuation, but then up pops geologist Dr. Tadokoro (Etsushi Toyokawa from `Until the lights come back`) who reworks the maths and sets the date at a little under a year in the future. As the frequency of natural disasters increases, so do the romantic feelings of our two leads, an assistant of Tadokoro`s named Onodera (The frequently annoying and not at all convincing Tsuyoshi Kusanagi from the pop group SMAP) and a rescue worker named Reiko (played by Shibasaki Ko, best known as the sickle-wielding Mitsuko in Battle Royale).
The government works on plans of evacuating the nation, while Dr. Tadokoro uses his pencil and newspaper to explain that he thinks he knows a way to stop Japan from being wiped out completely. Whilst all shit is blowing up around Japan, everyone knows that if Mount Fuji were to erupt then the whole of Honshu would tear in half and everyone would be toast.
As far as this flick goes, it is a lot of fun, but really not that good. The special effects are great, especially the earthquake sequences, but too often the shot ends before we see the end result. One scene comes to mind where hundreds of refugees are stood on a pier when suddenly an enormous wave appears... then we cut away. In fact, for a movie where so many million people are killed I have very little memory of actually seeing any deaths. I understand this is a flick for kids who like SMAP but still, I want see some people on fire! The shots of various cities destroyed are especially good, but if you have not been to Japan, or are unfamiliar with any of the scenery, then it might lose a lot of the impact. Seeing the Glico man in Osaka underwater made me giggle, or the 109 building in Shibuya toppling down, but maybe that is only because they are such normal parts of everyday life in Japan.
The cast is a bit too young and pretty in my opinion and while Shibasaki is very good as Reiko, Kusanagi is poorly miscast as the hero of this piece. Hell, he aint no Ben Affleck. Tokokawa does just fine as the cigarette-smoking mathmetician, and even the little girl is pretty good, but none of the characters have any kind of hold on the audience, so you really dont care how they might end up. A bit of character devlopment in a movie like this is essential and whether it was lacking in the book, the script, or just Kusanagi`s acting ability, I think that is the major flaw with this movie.
I guess a lot of people will compare this to Armageddon or The Day After Tomorrow, but I really dont think it is as good as either of them. Still, a good effort on behalf of Japan to make a summer blockbuster not involving cartoons.
As for me, I am waiting for the end of the summer when the parody of this flick, Nihon Igai Zenbu Chinbotsu, The Sinking of Everywhere Except Japan, hits theatres.
Seriously? There’s seriously a parody film already? If so, that’s the one I want to hear a review for now.
"Moriarty" out.
