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excerpt, full review at my location - Named after the Tokyo Fire Department code that indicates the discovery of survivors in need of rescue, Nobuo Mizuta's latest offering is inspired by a real-life rescue event that occurred following the Chuetsu earthquake of 2004. Ambitiously comparing itself to The Towering Inferno (1974), while at the same time allowing expectations to drop by throwing Japan Sinks (2006) into the mix, 252: Sign Of Life still has its work cut out, so will it sink or swim?

Anyone who can appreciate a studied, haunting portrayal of mankind's struggle against its self-destructive tendencies is better off watching something else. 252: Sign Of Life is more disaster than movie, disguising its lacklustre script with impressive effects but little else.

While a movie like this would likely contain a tragedy of epic proportions and a celebration of the human spirit, one can't help but to laugh at its missteps, overwrougt melodrama, and sheer ridiculousness of an ending that probably insults the professionalism of the uniformed group it wanted to put in good light. It becomes an unintentional comedy of errors that just makes you shake your head knowingly that it could have been something more interesting to begin with.

252: Signal of Life is just that, a code that rescue forces (or at least in Japan) use to inform everyone of survivors, galvanizing resources and to propel some lung bursting morale and adrenaline to rescuers who are risking life and limb for strangers that they do not know. But first they have to get their original mission statement through to the top brass whose concern is for the safety of the men under them, and risk taking becomes a tedious exercise, frustrating to the men all eager to perform a job well.

I thought this tussle against the backdrop of an ongoing disaster would serve as an interesting fuel for thought, especially meaningful when it tries to examine how these folks put others above self, and family beneath others at times, and had an extreme opportunity to debate over self-preservation, and to wonder the immense courage that it takes for one to do just that. Instead, we get melodrama, plenty of tears and frustrations lashed out amongst colleagues, friends and strangers, that it becomes too tiring, and most of the time for nothing.

For actor Hideaki Ito, one who has cut his teeth in disaster-rescue flicks like Umizaru and its sequel, his role here as ex-rescuer Yuji Shinohara might seem like a walk in the park. If not for his brooding of a sin of the past, and his good looks, he's an extremely cardboard character, which is what most of the other characters in the film are made of. Only Ayane Omori who stars as his deaf-mute daughter Shiori stole the show at every scene she's in, though the good work was destroyed by the story which decided to exploit that character for some Kleenex moment. I can go on about other characters in the film that continue to be unappealing such as Sachiko Sakurai's very teary turn as Mrs Shinohara, but the one which takes the cake, and probably chief villain for her incompetence, is Yu Kashii's Saki Umino the weather girl who has really poor forecasting skills.

The filmmakers here lacked the courage to have people bumped off. Not the anonymous extras that are in the background (those die en masse), but each deadly scenario the leads got put through, they lacked the confidence to shut the door on the characters, making it again highly repetitive in crafting how one survives death defying moments due to sheer luck, but only after some moments of unnecessary tension that the same trick just becomes overused by the time the third scenario rolls around. What's more of a sin was how the finale was one really draggy affair, allowing opportunities for more chest-thumping, affirmative actions like nodding, saluting, shouting, crying, and just milking all that's worth from an 18 minute window when the eye of the storm passes by.

Speaking of which, the special effects turned out to be less than spectacular. It showed off some eye-popping moments of gigantic tidal waves enveloping the streets of Tokyo, but it dried off really fast through some awesome drainage that the city has in its streets and underground network. Visually, it was more interesting to see how all the extras in each scene just run about the set in the background trying to look busy and act with a sense of urgency, while the cast in the foreground are feeling anything but that. As I mentioned earlier the finale was overwrought with cheesy melodrama that unnecessary dragged out the ending, but the moment which took the cake was how hundreds of rescuers would just gather round and do nothing but the care-bear-stare. Powerful stuff that.

252: Signal of Life had moments where it could have struck a fine balance in presenting an action-packed flick if it could have tightened up some of the incessant repetition (like how long it took for massive floodwaters to fill up a subway station, and there are only so many ways for extras to find themselves facing with a gush of water), and to have given itself enough time to explore the human dilemma of self-preservation versus the call of duty. Instead it became an unnecessary comedy filled with cardboard yet invincible characters.

Inspired by a real-life rescue event, 252: Sign Of Life is at times a pretty stunning disaster (and survival) movie that is huge on scale and delivers a very realistic view on the intensity and drama involved in such an event!

Japan is no stranger to disaster and destruction of its cities. From Godzilla to Ultraman, and from the devastating bombing of Hiroshima to the equally unfortunate Tsunami of 2011, the poor people of the Nippon island have had some hatefully bad luck...

In 252 however, there are no monsters this time. Disaster is brought down hard on the people of Tokyo as a mega-typhoon hits them flooding the city with tidal waves, taking lives with giant hailstones, leaving many residents dead or stranded and then some. One such team of people are a bunch of strangers stuck in the washed out subway tunnels - two of which are a father, Yuji Shinohara, and his deaf-mute daughter, Shiori.

Luckily, in some respect, Yuji is a former member of the Hyper Rescue Squad who tries to guide the unwilling team to a safe spot and work on finding some rescue from above. At the same time, unfortunately, the typhoon gets even worse!

I liked 252: Sign Of Life. While those who are used to the big, brash, fast moving CGI filled Hollywood disaster flicks such as 2012, San Andreas, Geostorm etc may find things a little more modest and slow moving here, it is for good reason. The film focuses on the reality of the problem from the melodrama of the fire crew and their rescue attempts, to the plight of the people both those who are trapped, and those who are safe.

That said, the film does offer plenty of visuals to enjoy from tidal waves to the flooding of Tokyo, the destruction of the city and subways, and much more! The sets are incredible looking and well used in bringing more tension and realism to the story, and the super cute Ayane Omori who plays Shiori, steals pretty much every scene she's in helping deliver a pretty emotional ending...

Overall: At times intense and heavy on drama, but 252: Sign Of Life proves to be a more believable disaster flick than most Hollywood offerings...