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Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: 11/18/2008
Director: Minoru Kawasaki
Cast: Kenji Kohashi, Shuuji Kashiwabara, Masatoshi Matsuo, Blake Crawford, Gregory Pekar, Arthur Kuroda, Dave Spector
Year: 2006
The Movie:
From the director of Executive Koala and The Calamari Wrestler comes The World Sinks Except Japan, a spot on satire of the disaster movies that were popular in the seventies and that have more or less appeared on the silver screen in a steady flow ever since. The premise this time out? Well, the title more or less gives that away. The film is set in a world where the core of the Earth starts to give way and things start shifting. The first casualty of this seismic upheaval is the United States, which sinks into the ocean and leaves the rest of the planet a massive refugee population to deal with but not soon after the rest of the world follows suit and countries sink into the sea… except Japan.
With Japan standing alone as the only place left that people can actually live, hordes of people from all over the world descent upon the small country with causes a new barrage of problems, not the least of which is a skyrocketing crime rate. The government responds by creating a special police unit while the politicians bicker amongst themselves, as politicians are apt to do during times of crisis all the while a plot to overthrow the current government begins to boil over…
Taking aim at modern American culture and unloading with both barrels, Minoru Kawasaki's satire sinks its claws into the good ol' U.S. of A as viciously as possible. Painting the remaining American populace in the film as stupid, slutty, greedy or all of the above the film has few kind words for the land of baseball and apple pie, but at the same time, Kawasaki makes sure that other countries and culture at least get hit with some shrapnel, his native land included. The U.S.A. may be the focal point of his wraith, but it's not the only target.
Political intent aside, the film is actually pretty funny and very clever in a lot of ways. The way that society unfolds in the film lends itself well to Kawasaki's quirky vision as it throws in all manner of bad clichés, poorly rendered CGI and stereotypes but actually manages to make it all work somehow. Those expecting the grandiose scale of something like The Day After Tomorrow can forget it, the scenes of destruction in the film are limited at best, but by lacing the stereotypical characters and scenes of bad effects work with clever social satire and poignant dialogue the film rises above its low budget roots and works quite well as a vague, if slightly angry, comment on the current state of world affairs.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Synapse presents The World Sinks Except Japan in a nice 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that's in very nice shape. Color reproduction is rock solid while black levels remain strong and consistent. There aren't any issues with print damage nor are there any problems with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement to note. All in all, this is a clean, colorful transfer that generally looks very good indeed.
The Japanese language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track comes with optional English subtitles that are clean, clear and easy to read and free of any obvious typographical errors. The audio quality itself is quite good. There aren't any problems with hiss or distortion nor are there any issues with the levels, they're all properly balanced. Dialogue is always easy to understand and the score sounds quite good.
Minoru Kawasaki and actor Takenori Murano provide a commentary (presented in Japanese with English language subtitles) that moves back and forth between a discussion of the film and its history and whatever topics happen to cross the participants' minds. These guys obviously get along and are pretty friendly here as they share a few anecdotes about the picture, its themes and ideas, and what it was like working on the film. It's fairly informative stuff but it does go off topic now and again - that said, at least when it does go off topic it remains interesting and amusing.
Also included is a Making of Documentary that runs just under forty-minutes in length. Made up of behind the scenes footage and cast and crew interviews, this segment does a good job of giving us a look at what it was like on set while the film was being made, what went into bringing some of the more effects intensive scenes to life, and how the cast and crew got along together.
Rounding out the extra features are a six-minutes worth of introductions from Kawasaki and his cast, the film's original theatrical trailer, a television spot, some animated menus and a chapter selection sub-menu.
The Final Word:
Synapse has done a great job in the audio, video and extras departments while the film itself proves to be a clever, and at times, pretty subversive rip on the disaster movies of the seventies. Kawasaki's films aren't for all tastes but those who enjoy his skewed vision will find a lot to appreciate about this twisted genre satire.