Jishin rettô

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.

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.

Allloooo! The movie is 1980 ! What do you want ???

Geologist realizes a big earthquake is coming but no one will listen. Whats worse is his father in law had predicted the 1923 Tokyo disaster and he's been called unworthy to be his successor. Of course the big one comes and Tokyo is knocked flat.

A poorly dubbed Japanese film that is pure soap opera for the first half. The second half- after the earthquake destroys a model city its an escape drama. There are some nice moments but the film wastes them either by undercutting the action by too many poor miniatures or by having people do unreal things. Hokey and not very good it has an ending you won't believe...

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.