Jishin rettô

Special effects and pyrotechnics are the only virtues in this otherwise wholly forgettable little Japanese disaster flick, about a monstrous-sized earthquake occurring in Japan. First 45-minutes are little more than melodramatics between geologist and his family, and his possible, impending divorce, and the disgrace of his family's name. He believes a major earthquake will strike Japan in the very near future, but is not believed.

The film eventually comes alive in a well done special effects sequence where a Japanese city is destroyed (or a miniature version of it, anyway) and buildings crumble, cars crash, cameras shake, and, in my opinion, a well-staged plane crashes while coming in for a landing, the city is thrown into chaos and panics when they realise he was unfortunately correct. These scenes are, in my mind anyway, quite well done and impressive, the only reason to search for this film, really, but it is a LONG wait for them.

I'm rewatching this and writing a review of this only couple of days after the 9.0 earthquake occurred in Japan, so we're finding out, in real life, what the Japanese and he rest of the world's response would be to just such an event. Or is that what full and complete 127-minute version of the film deals with? Perhaps that improves the American 96-minute version, with more miniature effects and a more complete ending? Or was that just more soap opera baloney in the first scenes? In the America version, the ending also probably only makes sense to people who are aware of the Japanese veneration of suicide.

Compared to films like The Swarm or When Time Ran Out, Jishin Retto (Deathquake, Earthquake 7.9, Megaforce 7.9, etc.) stands as a very competent disaster film. It even stands very well when pitted against some of the higher class disaster movies released before it. The fact that the film centers around plot lines that would have better place in The Young and the Restless than in a disaster film tends to bog it down during the first hour, though. But at the midway point, the quake hits, and we are treated to a mishmash of new effects and stock footage from Nippon Chinbotsu (and even the exploding freeway scene from Nosoturodamasu no Daiyogen). Not that this is a bad thing. The effects for all of those films were done by Teruyoshi Nakano, and he creates some great new images while not going overboard in the use of stock footage. The acting, direction, and special effects are all rather well done, and the music and color schemes help to give the film a fittingly dark tone. I was lucky enough to purchase this film on the now oop Toho released laserdisc, which preserves the original 127 minute running time as well as presents the film in stunningly high quality. I have no trouble recommending this film to fans of the disaster genre.

Tokyo has not seen an earthquake over 5.0 in a long time (1923), so this generation has gone soft. What will they do when hit by a 7.9 quake? Because one is projected to happen within one month...

Directed by Kenjiro Ohmori, who is not even known in Japan for anything.

The Fortune 5 DVD was apparently copied from VHS, with the jumpy frames and snow. The dubbing is what you might expect. Sometimes called "Earthquake 7.9" and other times "Megaforce 7.9" or even "Deathquake".

There is a scene where they purposely crash cars head-on into each other, in order to design a fireproof automobile. Why? Because "in an earthquake, cars will burn first". And in an earthquake, it is fire that kills, not the shaking.

There are some interesting Japanese cultural aspects, with a focus on disgrace of a family name, rather than an individual -- the prediction of an earthquake is a big deal, it seems.

Earthquake 7.9 (1980)

** (out of 4)

Japanese disaster film that not only rips off Earthquake but also mixes in some The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. The film tells the story of a young scientist who believes an earthquake will hit Tokyo by the end of the month yet no one believes him. Sure enough a massive earthquake hits and levels the city to pure rubble that the city hasn't seen since it was last attacked by Godzilla. I watched the American version of this film, which is cut by nearly thirty-minutes but from what I've read the only thing edited out are dialogue scenes at the start of the film. I must admit that I'm thankful I watched this cut version as the dialogue scenes at the start of the film are just downright dreadful and I can only imagine how much worse they would have been with a half hour more. These early build up scenes are horrid in just about any disaster movie no matter if they're from America, Italy or Japan but the ones here are just downright incredible in their badness. The worst thing is the music score, which starts to thunder and pound whenever something "dramatic" happens. This is so annoying that at times I was hoping a real earthquake would hit my town so that I could stop the movie. The second half of the film is actually a lot better but in a campy fashion. The earthquake sequences are poorly done and features some bad special effects but if you've seen any of the Toho Godzilla films with their cardboard cities being destroyed then you should know what to expect. The effects are just as bad here with the worst (or most laughable) scene coming when an airplane is trying to land but ends up breaking apart. The story of our hero having to take charge of a group of people is just as silly but it makes for a few good laughs including a sequence ripped off from The Poseidon Adventure where we get an underwater swim. Fans of disaster movies might want to check this out just to see what other countries were doing but I seriously doubt too many are going to get any entertainment out of this unless they're fans of camp.

How many disaster movies can there be before we get tired of them. Come on, we can see them on the Discovery channel all day long.

I agree with the comment that the first part of this movie is just a soap opera. The Great Predictor's grandson makes a prediction and everybody starts moaning about how he is ruining the family name. The evil mother-in-law convinces the wife to throw him out into the arms of his mistress, whom she wants to meet. Can you believe that? The wife wants to approve the new wife! At the same time the mistress' has someone in love with her that doesn't have a wife, but she sends him packing.

Now, that the soap opera is over, the earthquake appears.

The special effects are really good, but the dubbing is bad. That is why I like subtitled films. The actors are all very experienced and have won many awards, so you will get to see some of Japan's best in an oft-repeated story.

But, the soap-opera story returns with a kitchy ending.