The movie that Lucy is looking at the beginning is Black Rain (1989) directed by Ridley Scott, the producer of this movie.
There isn't really a bird that sings after earthquakes in Japan. The film's title springs from a mythic bird that comes out to sing after earthquakes.
In a Nov. 2019 interview with Harper's Bizarre, Alicia Vikander said she has no problem with onscreen nudity, but she told the production crew on Earthquake Bird and her other films that she will only allow one take during sex scenes so she isn't laying around nude in front of them for hours at a time. "I'm lucky to say that all of my sex scenes throughout my career have been nothing but technical. I probably did my first sex scene at 20 and it's always been technical, as it should be; it should never be anything but technical. I tell the crew it's a one-taker. That way, everybody on set is on point, because you have to get it done in one take. Like a dancer, we [choreographed it] the same way. I think that's the way to do it because then everyone feels comfortable and then hopefully, although it is super strange and uncomfortable, a little magic comes through a lens and people will be convinced."
When Lucy has a flashback of the children throwing pine cones and stones at her, she is protecting herself with a book. The book is an early edition of Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking) by the famous Swedish author Astrid Lindgren.
Lucy mentions to Teiji that she read when westerners first came to 19th Century Japan, many people did not like having their pictures taken. The reason why is they thought the "photographs would steal part of their soul." Teiji acknowledges this is true. The same was true when westerners first came to what is now Saudi Arabia in the early 20th Century.