When I first came to Japan one of the most annoying things I found was that while walking on the streets I had to evade bicycles. Yes!, bicycles in Japan can ride in the sidewalks. Then I got a bike and did the same as them, go by the sidewalks and ring the bell when too many people was blocking my way. It works really well, you ring the bell and they just move to one side automatically.
At his video you can see a smart guy that is walking and using a bike bell when the sidewalk is too crowded.
This weekend I watched “Nihon Chinbotsu” (Japan Sinks), that was one of the films in the top-box office in Japan last year.
It’s a Japanese super production that mixes a horrible love history with Hollywood style special effects showing how earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis destroy Japan. The film starts showing a scientist that discovers how a “Megalith” is growing down Japan and explains to the Japanese Prime Minister how it will explode destroying all the country. The rest of the film is uninteresting and is just a succession of special effects destruction and love talks.
How the “Megalith thing” works.
I liked how they show millions of people dying without remorse, I guess I’m used to American productions like Day After Tomorrow where you have to induce that people die. Nihon Chinbotsu shows masses of people being absorbed my huge tsunamis, earthquakes and volcano lava. Maybe Japanese are more used to disasters 🙂 . Another interesting point is that the Prime Minister dies in the first 10 minutes of the movie in an uninteresting accident without any dramatism, the Prime Minister dies just like a “normal” Japanese, Can you imagine that in an Hollywood movie?
A boring film, that is only interesting because of the destruction sequences, but you can see almost all of those cool special effects in the trailer and in some youtube videos.
The trailer.
First two minutes of the movie that shows a beautiful country before the destruction.
Tsunami that destroys Hokkaido.
Tokyo disappears. Hey!!! That’s my home!!
Photo from Ferrán Epifanio