La Submersion du Japon

This film is very rarely shown. As one of the biggest fans of the disaster movie genre, I can honestly say that the film is a disappointment. The Japanese version of this film was excellent from what I understand, but the American version that I saw was terrible. Lorne Green was dubbed in for American audiences in 1975 and the movie was retitled Tidal Wave. I believe 1973 is listed on IMD's records. I think you may be incorrect. I have always seen the movie date as 1975 everywhere else. The special effects are worth seeing as some of the acting, but again very disappointing as far as the tidal wave sequences. It is worth watching once if the networks ever air it again. This picture is very rare and almost forgotten.

I don't know WHAT some other reviewers on here were watching...but it certainly could not have been the original "Nippon Chinbotsu" (aka" Submersion of Japan")...but probably the Roger Corman cheapie-chopped version known as "Tidal Wave".

To which...if it were "Tidal Wave" (made, as always...by schlockmeister Corman...to make a quick buck piggybacking on the coattails of the Mid 70s disaster craze)...then yep (aside from the Special Effects...which are amazing in either version), then I grant you..."Tidal Wave" is pretty bad.

But the Japanese Original? Is EVERY BIT on par (if not better than) The Towering Inferno and Earthquake...combined.

The Towering Inferno was also "talky". So to whomever said that Chinbotsu was "talky"...fails to realize that the BEST disaster films always flesh out the characters and the actors actually ACT. (Not just jump out of skyscraper windows or roll down hills in a train car attacked by Killer Bees).

As for the SpFX? For its time...they are of ELITE caliber. The tidal wave sequences, volcanic eruptions are "Cecil B DeMille/Irwin Allen" level...all the way.

The original (of course) wouldn't "translate well to American Audiences", and is exactly why Corman bought it up/chopped it up, dumbed it down..tossed Lorne Greene in it and released it as "Tidal Wave".

But the ORIGINAL version of this film.... IF you can ever be fortunate enough to see it or get your hands on it...is "The Poseidon Adventure...of Japan disaster films".

It is simply...an epic and the very best disaster film they ever made.

But same as "The Japanese often seem to LOVE American Made Disaster Films" (Poseidon, Towering Inferno, Earthquake...ALL made big bucks in Japan, long after they ended their US box office runs...but they ALSO EVEN seem to like the ones that tend to bomb. Japan gave some "extra legs" to pathetic films like The Swarm and Meteor.

So, in retrospect...simply because "Tidal Wave" was a cheeseball chop chop version released here by Corman and his garbage-makers...should NOT cause any disdain to the epic that Nippon Chinbotsu is and was.

That original film...deserves a NEW RELEASE HERE. For it was a masterwork.

Overall one's reaction to this film will rely on how interested they are in geology and plate tectonics. There are several points in this film where it grinds to a halt and we are "treated" to a lecture about how the earth's crust and mantle work and why the destruction of Japan is so imminent. While ostensibly quite boring, this actually perked up my attention as the whole scenario seems quite plausible. Japan is in fact in a precarious geologic position and could indeed one day (albeit over the course of millions of years) fall away into the Japan Trench.

This movie asks you to accept a huge what-if scenario for if continental drift could suddenly accelerate to cataclysmic rates. Fortunately this film also does a pretty good attempt to simulate this, relying heavily on Teruyoshi Nakano's brilliant pyrotechnic effects.

The real show-stopper comes about 40 minutes into the film with the out-of-nowhere 15-minute earthquake that strikes Tokyo and kills over 3 million people. What a bodycount! I think it had to be the largest in any film up to that point. Lots of quality shots of oil refineries exploding, cars crashing, people running around on fire, and even some surprisingly graphic gore when glass shards rain down on civilians. This sequence (along with the film in general) is aided immeasurably by one of Tetsuro Tamba's best performances ever as the stoic, yet prone-to-outburst prime minister.

Unfortunately this mid-movie sequence is the high point of the film. The climax is clumsily structured and not very exciting at all, instead deciding to focus on two married evacuees being separated. Quite disappointing. At least the film maintains a level of earnest seriousness which can draw you in even though there is little or no character development... much like VIRUS did seven years later. Also it asks some good questions such as whether a nation deserves to exist when the land underneath it ceases to be... or what human life (when we're not talking about a few, but 100 MILLION) is really worth.

Overall though, this film is a bit talky and poorly structured, but personally I was quite intrigued and not bored... and the mid-movie destruction and mayhem (as only the Japanese can deliver) was well-worth the price of admission. Also, refreshingly for Toho films of the time, there are no annoying children and no attempts at humor. Zero.

Once again the beautiful city of Japan is threatened by natural disasters. Lord knows Japan has suffered through a lifetime of loss by tsunamis and earthquakes and volcanos. The special effects are good and the storyline is less than exciting even to a devoted disaster movie fan like me. I would recommend anyone to view it once, that is if it is ever aired again. You will find the movie at least partly entertaining as long as the network does'nt show too many commercials to lose your interest.

Back in 1973, I have the opportunity to see this film in a lush big screen and back them that was an impressive show. Of course, anyone that has grown up in today's computer animated hyper realistic effects will dissect the movie mercilessly. In the other hand, we have here a film that depicts an event that 35 years later will make a good docudrama in the Discovery Channel. This drama described with precision a nation loosing his homeland to a great cataclysm that literally erase Japan out of the map, dispersing the surviving population around the globe separating families and friends to eventually live at the mercy of surrogate countries. I will love to see this film made again with today's f/x technology. Japanese filmmakers have matured well enough to create one the most shocking films ever.