I just can’t get enough of the (post)apocalypse.
Yesterday CNN ran an obit for Tetsuro Tamba. The headline was “‘You Only Live Twice’ actor dead,” which makes sense given that their audience is likely to be most familiar with the 1967 James Bond movie, but I was surprised to discover near the end of the piece that he had also starred in the 1973 film adaptation of Japan Sinks.
As a connoisseur of the post-apocalypse, I read Japan Sinks in translation in college (I had to get it on interlibrary loan). The basic premise of the novel is that Japan is going to be completely dragged under the ocean by tectonic activity; while there is some earth science fiction going on there, the real story is a speculative fiction description of the frantic attempts of the government to secure a future for Japanese culture. While other governments are happy to take custody of art treasures, they are less enthusiastic about refugees. The influence of the immediate post-WWII/atomic bomb era is obvious in the general sense of the rest of the world’s indifference/hostility to Japan;* the story does not really close on an optimistic note.
It’s not EXACTLY the (post)apocalypse, unless you consider Japan to be the entire world, but then again, this was not then and is not now an unimaginable attitude among the citizenry. Consider The Day After Tomorrow, as well, which was basically the story of a North American apocalypse with similar social issues, although less drawn out. (And really was just a USA POST-apocalypse, since I assume the entire population of Canada was just supposed to be dead.)
Interestingly, when I searched the IMDB for information about the movie, I also uncovered this year’s remake–of which I had been aware although I hadn’t realized it had been released yet–and I discovered that while the 1973 version was titled Nippon Chinbotsu, the 2006 remake is Nihon Chinbotsu.
The implications of this shift are unclear. In the present day, the use of the pronunciation “Nippon” makes you sound a little right wing. I don’t know if there were similar implications in 1973. I also don’t know how you would indicate this difference if you were writing in Japanese, which uses a two kanji character compound for “Japan” and as far as I know it’s the same regardless of your political leanings. I tried and failed to find an indication of how the book was originally titled/pronounced.
In fact, I think “Nippon” is probably more appropriate to the tone of the story, which as I recall had a fairly strong “wareware Nihonjin” (”We Japanese”) kind of feel to it, what with the tragedy of diaspora and all.*** The user review I saw on the IMDB remake page complained that it had largely ignored the sociological story in favor of big budget disaster effects–so closer to The Day After Tomorrow, although I assume without the dire wolves loose in the big city. It would be interesting to see the 1973 and 2006 versions together, although I don’t know when the latter will be available in English.
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*Although as I recall, this focused mostly on the white Western world and less on the rest of Asia, which has more immediate and arguably justified reasons to be hostile toward Japan.
**Do not discount the possibility that I am talking out my ass here.
September 28th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Two things:
1. Have you seen the new series Jericho, which is set in a small Nebraska town that is cut off after some apocalyptic event involving mushroom clouds? I have only seen previews.
2. As reported in a recent issue of the Tucson Weekly, there is one guy in town who is campaigning to get the owners of Nippon Motor Service (a service shop for Japanese cars) to change their sign which depicts the Japanese Imperial flag from WWII.
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/currents/Content?oid=oid:85929
September 28th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Huh, interesting. I like that history professor’s take on it. I think he makes a good point, although I can also understand that some people would still make the association. I don’t know if they’d be more likely to in Asia or not. Seems weird to me that they wouldn’t just use the MODERN Japanese flag anyway, which I think is more recognizable. Maybe that’s just showing my age, though.
I haven’t seen Jericho–I don’t have a TV here. I had heard about it, though. If the internet buzz is good, I may end up looking for it on DVD.
October 2nd, 2006 at 1:12 pm
My brother complained about the dire wolves, too.
Me, I was more distracted by the fact that in that well-worn blue hoodie, J. Gyllenhaal was more or less identical to said brother. (The bro thinks this is rubbish, although he will admit to looking a bit like the Facebook logo.)
Japan Sinks sounds really interesting - I wonder if it was published in Britain?