Nihon Chinbotsu (1973 film)

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Nihon Chinbotsu
Directed by	Shiro Moritani
Written by	Sakyo Komatsu (Novel) Shinobu Hashimoto
Starring	Keiju Kobayashi Hiroshi Fujioka Ayumi Ishida
Music by	Masaru Sato
Cinematography	Daisaku Kimura Hiroshi Murai
Editing by	Michiko Ikeda
Distributed by	Toho
Release date(s)	December 29, 1973
Running time	143 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
IMDb profile

Nihon Chinbotsu (日本沈没, Nihon Chinbotsu^? lit. "Japan Sinks" or "Submersion of Japan") is a 1973 film directed by Shiro Moritani. The film stars Keiju Kobayashi, Hiroshi Fujioka, Ayumi Ishida and is based on the novel published the same year written by Sakyo Komatsu. A remake for this movie was released in 2006 loosely based on a second section of this series.

The movie caused a sensation in Japan and paved the way for later "panic" features. Komatsu, the author of the novel, made a cameo in the beginning scenes of the movie.

[edit] Synopsis

Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes shake Japan. Firestorms burn beautiful Japanese cities to the ground. A weather survey group discovers that the Japanese Archipelago is moving towards the Japan Trench, which if left to continue on its collision course, would bring the whole island of Japan under the sea.

Both Japanese and American governments must find a solution to the problem or find refuge for the Japanese in neighboring countries.

New World Pictures released the film in a drastically cut 73 minute version called Tidal Wave. The film was very poorly received and New World kept its VHS release very limited, and it has yet to be released on DVD.