Japan Sinks!

Today I made my way over to Tokyo's famous Budôkan arena to catch the world premiere of Sinking of Japan / Nihon Chinbotsu / 『日本沈没』(see official site (Japanese only) and Twitch article).

The film was directed by Higuchi Shinji (樋口真嗣監督), who is well known as one of Japan's top SFX artists (his work on Kaneko Shusuke's Gamera 2 stands out for me) and entered the directing big leagues with last year's successful Lorelei. For the most part, this extravaganza didn't disappoint (see my mini-review below). Budgeted at over 2 billion yen (still cheap by tinseltown standards), it's also one of the more expensive films in Japanese history, and part of a trend of domestic event pictures which are going head-to-head with increasingly pricey, and often unprofitable, Hollywood imports. A previous adaptation of Komatsu Sakyô's novel Nippon Chinbotsu* was directed by Moritani Shirô (森谷司郎監督）and released in 1973 by Toho (here's an ancient review by Roger Ebert). In retrospect it's not a great film, but still considered a classic.

The new version, produced by TBS, stars Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (you know him from the band SMAP and movies such as Séance and Yomigaeri), Shibasaki Kou (you know her from films One Missed Call, Go and Battle Royale), Oikawa Mitsuhiro (as Kusanagi's deep-sea partner), Fukuda Mayuko, Yoshida Hideko, Emoto Akira (as a Mt. Fuji-surveyor), Kunimura Jun, Kôji Ishizaka, and Toyokawa Etsushi as a brilliant but difficult scientist (aren't they always?).

I went through the press entrance, down to the basement and into the arena to my floor-level seat. The venue quickly filled up and the lights went down. A male and female duo performed the R&B theme song to the film -- decent voices. After that the screen was ablaze with laser-produced vector graphics of Japan cracking apart, followed by each cast member's name as they took the stage. The synchronized squealing and waving from the legions of young, female Kusanagi fans was amusing. I was concentrating on Shibasaki Kou, who had her hair in a permed bob. Everyone spoke about their participation in the film. There was definitely a recurring theme of "please see this film in the cinema when it's released, not only on DVD". Each star said hello to fans in other stadiums across the country (Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo) via satellite. The whole event was billed at $1 million in the media.

In a nice gesture, Komatsu Sakyô, the author of the original novel, was spotlighted in the audience and then it was time for the movie.

--- Spoilers ---

The film starts off with a bang in the form of a fiery, post earthquake and volcano scenario. Kusanagi saves a lost little girl and is in turn rescued by Shibasaki Kou who swoops down from a helicopter. In a refreshing reversal of the common formula, it's a woman of pure action and a sensitive male scientist. They hook up for dialogue scenes every 15 or 20 minutes, which becomes fairly repetetive, but the fleeting time they spend together amidst the ensuing disaster deepens their bond fairly believably. There are subplots involving Shibasaki's family, who run a little restaurant in Shinagawa, the government frantically trying to deal with the situation, and Toyokawa's scientist who delivers the bad news -- Japan doesn't have 40 years until it sinks, it has less than one year.

Earthquakes, volcanoes and tidal waves strike the archipelago as tectonic plates begin to curl into the ocean, dragging Japan down with it like a swimming pool cover. The government tries to mobilize evacuation of the entire country as the death toll mounts, but many countries refuse the mass influx of Japanese refugees, in what could be read as an ironic reversal of the tough immigration policies here. Thousands of others try to make it to Japan's mountainous highlands. Kusanagi is guaranteed escape to the UK, where he wants to take Shibasaki and Misaki, the little girl, but Shibasaki is married to rescuing as many people as possible. For the sub-genre at hand, the drama and acting wasn't bad.

Special mention must be made of the special effects. I was expecting to "buy" maybe 70% of them as real-looking (and even then be quite forgiving), but I have to say that almost every shot of lava geysers, land dropping away, Tokyo collapsing, tidal waves looming, and Mt. Fuji itself pulsating with magma were equal to if not more convincing than the film's Hollywood counterparts. There were some amazing aftermath shots as well -- a devasted vista from Kiyomizu Temple, Nara's giant buddha statue half buried in the earth, Nagoya and Tokyo's tallest buildings toppled. Custom destruction posters were made for five of Japan's major cities: Tokyo, Fukuoka, Kyoto, Nagoya, and Sapporo. Above is the Kyoto artwork (if you want to use it elsewhere, please leave the copyright intact). Higuchi is a talented man who knows how to integrate effects seamlessly into traditional filmmaking techniques. The film of course had the complete cooperation of all of Japan's rescue and self-defence forces. If you're excited by ships, hovercrafts, military vehicles and undersea hardware, you're in for a treat.

While post-9/11 America is somewhat sensitive about depicting large amounts of people dying onscreen (cf. The Day After Tomorrow's almost deathless spectacle), Nihon Chinbotsu shows many souls being sucked into the earth, crushed by avalanches or swept away by thundering waves (memories of the Indian Ocean tsunami came to mind). It's all fairly bloodless, but the mass hysteria is quite disturbing and children are not spared. Some elements reminded me of Spielberg's War of the Worlds, especially the refugee-like masses, and the microcosm subplots sometimes recalled a Roland Emmerich film, but I thought Nihon fared better than either.

Disaster films always walk a fine line between entertainment, tragedy and outrageousness, but Japan is a country with real and proven potential for natural calamities. The daisy-chain of deep sea atomic bombs that save what's left of the country's land mass recall a more disturbing reality of 60 years ago. In the scenes where Tokyo falls, I have to admit I felt shivers. I don't think I was the only one in the arena waiting for it to start rocking...

--- End of Spoilers ---

Before the screening I was told the film got a decent amount of bids at Cannes -- we'll see how the territories pan out, but hopefully it's not too long before people can see the film abroad.

Excuse the first-draft roughness of this post, but it was already getting too long. Feel free to post any questions.

* 「日本」can be read as "Nippon" or "Nihon". "Nippon" is a somewhat more official, and in some cases more nationalistic reading and still used in relation to international sporting events, banking and certain company names (eg. All Nippon Airways). I had thought the title of the new film simply reflected the popularization of "Nihon" in conversational Japanese, but was told that it's actually a broadcast and media standard that's followed -- interesting.

Some technical notes: The film runs 135m and from what I could tell, was shot on the 24P, like Stars Wars: Episodes II & III. A fair amount of found footage of crowded train stations, airports, etc. was used, lending a documentary-like effect at times.