Another in the genre of the box-office friendly big budget disaster film, The Sinking of Japan is a remake of the 1980's Japanese movie of the same name. It marks the directorial debut of Shinji Higuchi (who created the effects for the Gamera film series, Seijun Suzuki's Pistol Opera and martial arts drama The Princess Blade). Starring Kou Shibasaki (One Missed Call, Battle Royale) as Reiko, a member of a Fire Rescue team and Tsuyoshi Kusanaga (of boy band SMAP) as Toshio, a marine scientist. The film's special and visual effects, by GMK's Makoto Kamiya, are easily its best attribute.

The film concerns the shifting and collision of tectonic plates around Japan. Japan sits in the middle of the Nigata-Kobe tectonic zone, its islands covering four tectonic plates. A collision of two plates results in catastrophe.

A team of scientists makes an initial prediction that the interaction will cause a full-fledged sinking of Japan over the course of 40 years, but it is just 338 days before Japan is rocked by earthquakes and floods. Submariners and scientists must perforate the earth's crust through a series of drillings and strategically placed hydrogen bombs. The bulk of the film's story revolves around Toshio, a heroic submarine pilot, and Reiko, a rescue worker, and their experiences in the disaster wrought landscape.

The Sinking of Japan now shows at cinemas citywide.

(China Daily 09/27/2007 page7)