Disaster Movies – Page 2 – Christopher P. Hood

“The Shark is Broken” Review: One of the Greatest Movies spawns One of the Greatest Plays

I have done many book reviews, some album reviews, and numerous movie reviews (primarily related to my research about disaster movies), but this will be my first review of a play. At the weekend I went to see “The Shark is Broken” at the Ambassador’s Theatre in London. Warning: This post contains some spoilers relating…

“Truth” in Fiction – Pillars and Cantilevers

In a number of posts (Book Review: “The Retreat” by Mark Edwards, Book Review: “Follow You Home” by Mark Edwards, Conventions in Disaster Movies, “Greenland” – A Very Good Disaster Movie, “Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac” and Remembering Air Florida Flight 90, and “The Day After Tomorrow” – Climate Change Meets Disaster Movie) I…

Lecture – “Japanese Disaster Narratives: Conservatism and Revisionism”

On Saturday 24 April 2021 I gave an online lecture for The Japan Society on the topic of ‘Japanese Disaster Narratives: Conservatism and Revisionism’. Japan has a long history of disaster movies. This lecture explained some of the key similarities and differences between English-language (primarily Hollywood) disaster narratives and Japanese ones. It was based on…

“St. Helens” – Explosive Disaster Movie

Although I have now written about all of the movies that I included in my article “Disaster Narratives by Design: Is Japan Different?“, there are still new disaster movies coming out – such as Greenland. I am also still finding older disaster movies that I didn’t manage to get before I completed my research on the…

Book Review: “Ken-chan no Momi-no-Ki (The Fir Tree)” by Kuniko Miyajima

There are certain things that are well known about the JAL flight JL123 crash – that it is the world’s largest single plane crash (520 fatalities), that amazingly there were 4 survivors, that the Search and Rescue took a long time, that final notes (isho) were written by some passengers and crew, that question marks…

Lecture – “Japanese Disaster Narratives: Conservatism and Revisionism”

On Saturday 24 April 2021 I will be doing an online lecture for the Japan Society. The lecture will start at 11:00 BST/19:00 JST. The date and time have been chosen so that it will make it easier for those in Japan to access the lecture live. I will be speaking on my research about…

“Greenland” – A Very Good Disaster Movie

Although I have now written about all of the movies that I included in my article “Disaster Narratives by Design: Is Japan Different?“, there are still new movies coming out (even during COVID-19) and amongst these there are disaster movies. Having missed out on its cinema release Greenland (Ric Roman Waugh, 2020) was recently made available…

“Hiroshima” by Hideo Sekigawa – The Ultimate Japanese Disaster Movie

In the next, and last, of my posts about movies which I studied for my article “Disaster Narratives by Design: Is Japan Different?“, I am writing about Hiroshima (ひろしま) (Hideo Sekigawa, 1953). This is the oldest movie amongst all those that I studied, but it could also be the most influential – at least amongst the Japanese language…

“Sekai Daisensō (The Last War)” – An Old Japanese Disaster Movie But Still Relevant Today

In the next of my posts about movies which I studied for my article “Disaster Narratives by Design: Is Japan Different?“, I am writing about Sekai Daisensō (世界大戦争) (Shūe Matsubayashi, 1961) known as The Last War in English. This is one of the many disaster movies that came out from Toho Studies in the 1960s,…