Doomsday: The Sinking of Japan (2006)

Japan will sink down to the deep sea. The governments only hope is evacuate all Japanese to some other countries.

Director:

Shinji Higuchi

Writers:

Sakyo Komatsu (novel) (as Sakyô Komatsu), Masato Kato (screenplay)

Stars:

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Ko Shibasaki, Etsushi Toyokawa

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Tsuyoshi Kusanagi	...	Toshio Onodera
Ko Shibasaki	...	Reiko Abe (as Kô Shibasaki)
Etsushi Toyokawa	...	Yusuke Tadokoro
Mao Daichi	...	Saori Takamori
Mitsuhiro Oikawa	...	Shinji Yuki
Mayuko Fukuda	...	Misaki Kuraki
Hideko Yoshida	...	Tamae Tanokura
Akira Emoto	...	Prof. Fukuhara
Jun Kunimura	...	Kyosuke Nozaki
Koji Ishizaka	...	Prime Minister Yamamoto (as Kôji Ishizaka)
Ken'ichi Endô	...	Shin-ichirou Nakata
Takeshi Katô	...	Prof.Yamashiro
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hideaki Anno	...	Yamashiro's Son in law
Moyoco Anno	...	Yamashiro's Daughter
Harutoshi Fukui

Storyline

In the aftermath of a major earthquake under Suraga Bay, Misaki (a young girl) and Toshiro (a pilot of a deep sea submarine) are rescued from a ruined city street just as leaking gasoline ignites. Reiko Abe arrives just in time, lowered from a helicopter. Scientists predict that Japan will sink within 40 years, due to subduction of a tectonic plate to the west. However, Dr. Tadokoro, who leads an oceanic scientific team that includes Toshiro, calculates that this will happen far sooner, in only 338.54 days. He presents his findings to Prime Minister Yamamoto who decides to create a new department for impending disaster relief assigning Saoro Takamori to cover the new duties, since of all his ministers she will take it seriously but also bring "heart" to the process. As further earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions devastate Japan, the government pleads with other countries to take refugees. Yamamoto flies to China to negotiate relocations there, but his plane is destroyed by a...

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Plot Keywords:

earthquake | japan | tsunami | disaster | disaster film | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG-13

Did You Know?

Trivia

Final acting role of Tetsurô Tamba.

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Connections

Remake of Tidal Wave (1973)

User Reviews

Incredible effects, good acting, good beginning but unfortunate ending

Another "end of the world" film that begs comparison to the abysmal "Day After Tomorrow". Following the same sort of structure as DAT but with a distinctly Japanese style. How does it fare? That depends on your taste for Japanese melodrama.

I found that the small human touches to be what makes this film compelling for most of it's 2 + hours. Also the frequent title cards explaining some of the science. The effects are probably the best I've seen in a Japanese film and they compare very well to anything out of Hollywood. Many of the disaster scenes are truly horrifying even though the human carnage is usually off screen. And that is one of the drawbacks. While the terror of thousands of on- screen deaths like in the recent "War of the Worlds might have too overwhelming, we also don't really get a sense of the chaos of an entire nation crumbling into the ocean. A few scenes touch on the chaos but for the most part this part of the story is barely touched on. Regardless, this film works on a lot of levels and is way more realistic then DAT, that is until the end.

Unfortunately the story hinges itself on one clichéd plot device and another plot device that would be at home in the 1960's Japanese Earth in peril film "Gorath". After the reasonably good science and mostly realistic take on the disaster, this makes for a bit of disappointment. The sudden stopping of the film for a pop love song doesn't help either (unless you like the song). This made the "exciting" ending a bit of a drag for me.

The overall direction is good and the art design is excellent. Acting is all good as well. Recommended.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

15 July 2006 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Doomsday: The Sinking of Japan

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$51,127,401

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dentsu, J Dream, Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS)

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1