As a long-time fan of disaster movies, I have to check out everything I can get my hands on, from the big budget Hollywood blockbusters to the cheapest kind of B-movies you find showing on the SyFy Channel. In the past decade, the Asian markets have been trying their hand at homegrown disasters, with the likes of the Chinese AFTERSHOCK and the Korean TIDAL WAVE proving that the East knows how to handle mayhem and chaos on a big scale just as well as us in the West. THE SINKING OF JAPAN, as the title would suggest, is a Nipponese take on a truly catastrophic disaster.
The film explores the impact of the country literally sinking into the ocean due to its precarious position on the edge of a tectonic plate, the so-called ring of fire that sees a distinctly high prevalence of natural disasters even at the best of times. Of course, a handful of scientists have a plan to stop it happening, but they have to fight with stubborn officials and national panic at the same time. Despite its Eastern flavour, THE SINKING OF JAPAN is a very familiar sort of film for those brought up on Hollywood equivalents.
Sadly, it's also way too long, which seems to be a common concern with disaster flicks these days. I prefer my disaster movies to focus on the individual, showing them battling against nature's fury in a bid for survival; this is one of those films about dedicated scientists with a little bit of disaster thrown in for good measure. The disaster scenes themselves are very well achieved, and dotted throughout the movie, but they're also brief and almost glossed over in places.
Instead, we're in for plentiful emoting, lots of long and drawn-out dialogues and arguments, and even a cheesy romance complete with a love song playing over the visual imagery. It's pretty cheesy, downright laughable in places, and not really very entertaining. I want to watch a disaster film; give me the disaster, you know?
The film explores the impact of the country literally sinking into the ocean due to its precarious position on the edge of a tectonic plate, the so-called ring of fire that sees a distinctly high prevalence of natural disasters even at the best of times. Of course, a handful of scientists have a plan to stop it happening, but they have to fight with stubborn officials and national panic at the same time. Despite its Eastern flavour, THE SINKING OF JAPAN is a very familiar sort of film for those brought up on Hollywood equivalents.
Sadly, it's also way too long, which seems to be a common concern with disaster flicks these days. I prefer my disaster movies to focus on the individual, showing them battling against nature's fury in a bid for survival; this is one of those films about dedicated scientists with a little bit of disaster thrown in for good measure. The disaster scenes themselves are very well achieved, and dotted throughout the movie, but they're also brief and almost glossed over in places.
Instead, we're in for plentiful emoting, lots of long and drawn-out dialogues and arguments, and even a cheesy romance complete with a love song playing over the visual imagery. It's pretty cheesy, downright laughable in places, and not really very entertaining. I want to watch a disaster film; give me the disaster, you know?