“The Days” – The Way To Understand the Fukushima Disaster

Today (11 March 2024) is the anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, often also referred to as 3/11 or the Great East Japan Disaster. I don’t have much to add about this on top of what I have written in posts such as Remembering the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and…

“Japan Sinks – People of Hope” – Japan Gets That Sinking Feeling… yet again.

I have previously written a post about the two movie versions of Nihon Chinbotsu (日本沈没) known as ‘Japan Sinks‘ in English. I had studied the two versions discussed in that post for my article about disaster movies. After that I came across an animated version of the story on Netflix (see “Japan Sinks 2020” –…

“The Divide” – A Disaster Movie at Its Worst

As noted in my work on disaster narratives – for example see  “Disaster Narratives by Design: Is Japan Different?” – there is no ‘Disaster’ genre per se. This means that when I have been doing my studies, as well as new movies that would fit with in my studies coming out still, I sometimes come…

“Minamata” – Fabulous Photography and Telling of a Story that Shouldn’t Need Telling

This week I am leading some seminars at university to do with protest in Japan in the 1960s. It’s not possible to discuss this theme without Minamata and Minamata-byo (usually referred to as “Minamata Disease” although, technically, it is an illness rather than a disease) coming up. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to watch the movie…

“Special Bulletin” – A Special TV Movie that Needs a Remake

As well as re-watching Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis (as I discussed in “Anyway we delivered the bomb” – Telling the Story of the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis), I have also re-watched another TV movie, “Special Bulletin” recently. I have already done one post about “Special Bulletin“, so won’t…

“Fukushima 50” – Thoughtful and Thought-Provoking Adaptation of Events of 3/11

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. One of these is Fukushima 50 (directed by Setsuro Wakamatsu), which I watched this week. In…

My Top James Bond Movies

After my posts about top disaster movies and my top movies and TV shows, I thought, as James Bond featured twice in that latter list and I have done a number of posts related to James Bond, that I would rank all of the Bond movies. As with the previous lists, the ratings are just…

My Top Movies and TV Shows

This post provides a list of my favourite movies/TV programmes. It is based on the ratings that I have given them on IMDb. Given that IMDb hasn’t been around as long as I have, I suspect that there are many titles that I have forgotten to add – they may get added in due course….

“No Time To Die”, but Time to Kill Off the Bond Franchise

At the weekend I finally got to see the latest James Bond movie, “No Time To Die”. In many ways, like so many of my generation (at least in the UK), I have grown up alongside 007 movies. I have posted before about how I used to watch “You Only Live Twice” and “The Man…

“People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan”

In my recent presentations ‘Two Tribes, United by Music: Western Pop in Japan‘ and ‘Western Pop Acts in Japan: Putting the Cult into Culture‘, as well as in the part of my book Frankie Fans Say, I have been discussing the term ‘Big in Japan’. The term appears to be another one of those cliches…

“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…

“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…