Disaster movies are about facing our fears, making us feel small in the presence of nature. They’re the ultimate horror movies, a senseless display of violence, cynicism and kills for the sake of entertaining the audience. I love it of course, in the same way I love to read true crime or watching documentaries about terrible incidents. They’re been with me since I was a kid, from Towering Inferno to - my absolute favorite - Mark Robson’s Earthquake. Somehow disaster films mixes the gay sensibilities of emotionally strong and scene chewing melodramas with the harsh reality of the world.
Kenjirô Ohmori’s Deathquake belongs the the last gasp of the original fad, which began in the early seventies and slowly faded away until a few huge fiascos around 1980. Maybe Iriwin Allen’s When Time Ran Out.. was the nail in the coffin, a very standard disaster romp with a visibly bored Paul Newman fighting a volcano. Not bad, in a way only us fans of melodrama can appreciate, but of course far from being a quality product. Kinji Fukusaku’s super-expensive international co-production Virus also gave the genre the death blow - which is a damn pity, because it’s one of the best virus thrillers ever made. Low on visual disasters but huge on human drama.
Deathquake is a lightweight product compared to The Submersion of Japan, Toho’s giant production who later was recut in the US by Roger Corman and released as Tidal Wave. The original Japanese movie is a masterpiece, one of the best disaster films ever made. A haunted, doomed tale with an interesting sense of self-reflection on the behalf of the Japanese. It evoked the atmosphere of the bomb, of war, of great human tragedies. It’s still powerful.
Deathquake on the other hand starts of pretty slow, very talky melodrama with the usual ingredients of scientists trying to make the government understand the dangers that awaits, a marriage in danger and of course a pretty big amount of characters on different places in Tokyo when the big one hits and literary destroys the whole town. I’ve seen Deathquake a couple of times over the years, but only the terribly crappy American version, dubbed and in awful public domain quality. Now I finally bought the gorgeous-looking Japanese DVD without subs, but it’s really no probably following the story - even if it’s a lot of talk the first hour.
The acting is good, with the typical “intensive” acting from some of the Japanese stars, but we all know that humans in the end is just supporing characters when the earthquake finally hits. And when it hits it hits good. Some of the footage is stock footage from earlier Toho productions, but the rest is actually really impressive mayhem, shot for this movie. There’s some fine miniatures crumbling in front of our eyes, lots of explosion, a not so good-looking tsunami and even a few splashes of blood here and there.
Like most Japanese movies, at least from the time, this is more focused on the human drama than the action, but still delivers some impressive disasters and mayhem - which make it worth watching the drama. Everything after that becomes so much more powerful afterwards. It’s actually interesting how much time is spent with the humans, something it shares with Submersion of Japan and Virus, and kinda put the effects in the background. Sometimes this can be really good - especially if the action deliver.
Not really sure how I can recommend you watching this. The Japanese DVD looks fantastic, but has no subs, and the US DVD looks SHIT, but is English-friendly. Maybe you should watch both? Just to get the idea of what’s all the talking is about!
"emotionally strong and scene chewing melodramas with the harsh reality of the world."
Yeah, there is strong melodramatic atmosphere to disaster films.
"It evoked the atmosphere of the bomb, of war, of great human tragedies. It’s still powerful."
I guess Japans defeat in WW2 made them aware of this.....and the A-bombings over Japan, that effected them alot, clearly visibly in films like Gojira/Godzilla (1954), Matango(1963) etc.
"Some of the footage is stock footage from earlier Toho productions, but the rest is actually really impressive mayhem, shot for this movie."
If it´s well done it can be pretty effective....and I guess budget was tight on this one....
"Not really sure how I can recommend you watching this. The Japanese DVD looks fantastic, but has no subs, and the US DVD looks SHIT, but is English-friendly. Maybe you should watch both? Just to get the idea of what’s all the talking is about!"
I have never seen it.....I might, good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | February 07, 2014 at 16:19
Disaster movies are also showing us how the world could end if we continue doing what we do. They are horror movies like you said but people need to see what can happen,and prepare us for that.
Posted by: Tuscan | February 11, 2014 at 14:09
You're absolutely correct! And I think Submersion of Japan is the best example of this. Still a very impressive movie. Need to rewatch the new version also, Japan Sinks.
Posted by: Fred Anderson | February 11, 2014 at 14:26