Japan Sinks!

Nihon Chinbotsu 日本沈没　is the name of the movie that I watched last night. I went to the theatre with one of my German friends here, and he wanted to see this Japanese disaster movie. It is based on an over 30-year old book that tells the same story.

Basically, the movie starts out with a large earthquake. While not an out of place event for Japan, it is discovered that the tectonic plates under Japan are undergoing some major movements. The result is that Japan is literally going to sink into the ocean in just under a year. During this year, there are to be a large number of huge volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that will sink the country into the Pacific Ocean. This is not unlike the spree of disaster movies that came out of Hollywood in recent years.

Of course, they added a couple of love stories to the movie (which bored me). At times, this movie felt a bit like a Korean drama; with a man and woman crying in each others arms for what felt like an eternity. As well, the Japanese prime minister instructed the population to leave the country. There were scenes of people fleeing by all types of planes and boats. I was interested to see the distruction of a number of places in Japan where I have already been to (Fukuoka, Tokyo, etc.). They made sure to showcase different famous places in Japan being buried under lava, falling into the ocean, crumbling down, etc.

The movie was, of course, completely in Japanese. Not knowing much of the language wasn't a problem for me though, as I was able to follow along with the context (and a few key words which I already knew). My German friend knows the language, and made sure to fill me in on some of the story that I might not have caught on my own. Overall though, because this was a very visual movie, I would've been fine with no commentary at all.

Other then the emotional scenes, it was a pretty cool movie.























Hey, I've been up the building before! See you later Fukuoka...




















Bye-bye Sapporo.





















Isn't the top of the tower supposed to be, you know, at the top?
















Looks like Kagoshima to me.




















Kyoto is no more.