Review

Two hours previously a major earthquake 30 miles under Suruga Bay in Shizuoka Prefecture laid waste to the surrounding area. Misaki, a young girl, is wandering aimless down a destroyed city street while Toshiro, who is a pilot of a deep sea submersible, wakes in a car laying on its side. There's petrol spilling everywhere and an aftershock downs some live power lines. Just when it looks dicey for our survivors the extreme rescue helicopter team swoops down with action gal Reiko saving the day. The earthquake is the first indicator that the Japanese apocalypse may not be 30 - 50 years away, as the American's claim. Seems that the subduction of a tectonic plate to the west is going to cause the Japanese archipelago to sink. But it's not going to go quietly into the abyss, oh hell no there's going to be earthquakes, mass volcanic eruptions, and of course tsunamis. About the only thing the Japanese are going to be missing is a visit by Julie Bishop!

Like most governments the current Japanese administration sees 30-50 years in the future as nothing to be concerned about currently, until a Doctor Tadokoro presents some disturbing news. The oceanographic researchers has been studying rocks in the Cook Islands, making deep sea readings of seismic activity and generally doing a bit of computer projection on the current data. According to Tadokoro Japan has 338 days before they get that sinking feeling, time for the Government to get their arses into gear and work out an exit strategy for the entire nation. Just when all seems at its darkest and Mount Fuji is threatening to split the country in half Tadokoro devises a Hail Mary plan, but it's going to need Toshiro to make the ultimate sacrifice at the end.

There's some confusion over the title of this movie as differing regions seem to have decided to go with their own title, not like the film makers had one originally or anything of course. Over in Asian the title translates roughly as "Japan Sinks", up in North America it's being released as "The Sinking of Japan", I simply went with the Vendetta title on my R4 DVD copy.

The Asian studios have been pumping out a number of disaster movies recently so thought I might dip my toes in and see how they compare to Western fare. First up its noticeable that, at least in this movie, the Writers haven't setup secondary characters to be cannon fodder. Sure there's a lot of death and mayhem but said death either happens in long shots or off screen. Clearly Director Shinji Higuchi isn't in the business of throwing on people dying to appease the lowest common denominator; he's making a salient warning movie which given recent disasters that have hit mainland Japan are actually somewhat prophetic. Equally this movie doesn't present lead characters doing superhuman things, anyone honestly believe John Cusack's character could outrun a pyroclastic flow in 2009's 2012? So yes there are differences between Asian disaster movies and the Western equivalent that go beyond subtitles.

Entertaining movie that needed to be trimmed by half an hour

On the bright side you can look forward to some epic disaster scenes as Director Higuchi lays waste to Japan from one end of the Country to the other. We're talking massive earthquakes, flooding, tsunamis, and the ever fun massive volcanic eruption. Higuchi hits about every major landmark in Japan and in loving detail destroys it, the dude is on crack with this movie and is taking it all down! There's a real epic quality to the destruction being shown that has escaped recent Western disaster movies, that to be honest look a lot more like cartoons than solemn warnings on what natural might have in store for us. Higuchi is going more Super Volcano and less The Day After Tomorrow. Actually if Roland Emmerich ever gets to see Sinking of Japan he's going to be bouncing up and down in his play chair.

While the destruction is on the epic side of the goods wagon Higuchi takes time out to introduce the human element to his tale of Biblical apocalypse. We have a budding romance, a single family trying to stay positive as their world ends in chaos, the female politician fighting to save lives, and the researcher who is forced to cry havoc and isn't believed. There's plenty of focus on individuals, in amongst the destruction, as Higuchi ensures a human edge to his disaster flick.

Unfortunately the human edge that intrudes into Sinking of Japan also constitutes one of the movie's major flaws. Higuchi loses all pacing when he focuses on his core characters with some dramatic scenes slowing proceedings down to glacial speeds. To be honest the movie has a running time of nearly 180 minutes, half an hour could have been trimmed from that in order to streamline things.

Having said that there is some anticipation being generated as we all wait on Mt Fuji to go supernova and destroy everything. With the minutes ticking away the volcano starts rumbling, the lava starts flowing, and ... no spoilers.

We have a few J-Horror titles in the review queue at the moment, yes Japanese horror does extend beyond the Ring and Grudge franchises, so I was happy enough to dial into this little apocalyptic film in anticipation. While the pacing was certainly all over the shop I did dig Reiko doing her superwoman thing, the disaster constructs that looked pretty awesome, and the pseudo science behind the whole scenario. To be honest even though I'm not likely to give Sinking of Japan anything like top marks it was still superior to the recent crop of Hollywood flicks in the same genre. Worth a look if you like mass destruction, but not necessarily required viewing, and yes it does have the dreaded subtitles. I would sink a few tinnies while you get your Japanese movie thing happening.