Review: FRONTLINE - INSIDE JAPAN'S NUCLEAR MELTDOWN (2012)

One last documentary ... the penultimate entry on THE BIG LIST my son and I compiled last year.

Today's is PBS' Frontline: Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown (2012).

My son will go first:

Well, this one is the last movie. This movie inspired the New Godzilla movie because the radiation suits, the nuclear power plant destruction and the damage looks like the Trailers.  I knew about the earthquake and tsunami, but I didn't know about the nuclear power plant or the radiation.  It was interesting and I liked it. 

So, rating wise, i'll say 3.6 out of 5 Atomic Breaths of Awesomeness!! 

My turn:

As James said, in the opening several minutes, we are hit with a lot of imagery.  Imagery that Godzilla's filmmakers obviously cribbed from for the new film (and I'm going by what we've seen in the trailers). 

Obviously, Fukushima's relation to the new movie has inspired art, too: 

 

As for the story itself, I was familiar with the vast majority of it but I was very surprised to hear just how much Tepco (the company that operates the plant) covered up and withheld from Japan's PM even as the danger was unfolding.  Staggering stuff. 

It's well done and there is some human interest included, primarily with one man searching for his wife and child despite radiation warnings around the plant.  The bravery on display is amazing, as we often see in stories like this.  I don't know if it's Frontline's laid-back style, but the magnitude of the bravery didn't seem to come through for me.  (I comprehend it, but I didn't feel it in my gut.) 

Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown ... very influential, I'm sure, as we'll see.  3.5 out of five atomic breath blasts.

Here's a link to the entire documentary.

Up next, yes.  The time has arrived.  Godzilla (2014).

Reviews: HIROSHIMA (2005) and THE UNLUCKIEST DRAGON (2011)

Not long now.  THE BIG LIST is done, but we're doing an "Inspiration List," too.  Watching a couple of films and documentaries that gave us Godzilla.

Today's documentary is the BBC doc Hiroshima (2005).

I'll go first:

This was a late addition.  After two previous documentaries (Rise & Fall of the Japanese Empire and Trinity & Beyond) failed to delve into the actual bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I felt like we needed to see something else. 

Well, this documentary gave a much-needed humanity to our documentary proceedings thus far.  Depressingly so.  Not that I was expecting sunshine and lollipops, of course. 

There is some archival footage, but most of the doc is compromised of interviews with survivors and dramatizations of their recollections.  It's difficult to not get choked up as you hear the pain in their voices and see the tears well in their eyes.  The horror of that day is very well presented. 

It's not solely from the perspective of the Japanese that this film unfolds.  We also get some of the thoughts behind the decision to drop the bombs in the first place, the devastating invasion plans that were being considered, the warnings given to the Japanese leadership that were ignored, etc.  Though the intention is objectivity, it's hard for the American side of things to hold a candle to the raw emotion and visceral imagery on display in Japan. 

Watching this, I kept an eye out for details in the attack.  Details that may show up in 1954's Gojira.  I wasn't disappointed. 

Hiroshima ... fun side note: young Gareth Edwards worked on the visual effects for this.  4 out of five ... stars.  ("Atomic breath blasts" seems inappropriate.)

My son's turn:

Well, this one is a big downer because it's about people in the bomb attack and what the radiation effects are on humans. the reason this is important is because Godzilla's attack on Japan is like the atomic bombs. 

So rating wise, i'll say 2.6 out of 5 Atomic Gulps of Guilt! :(  

Here's a trailer:

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WE'RE GOING AGAIN!

Another documentary, this is a short one.

The Unluckiest Dragon (2011).

My son James will go first:

Well, the reason we are watching this is because this inspired Godzilla to be made. So this one is about a ship called The Lucky Dragon that got attacked by a Hydrogen bomb.  It feels familiar. 

So, rating wise, i'll say 3.4 out of 5 Atomic Breaths of Inspiration!!

My turn:

An audio essay with accompanying photos, Dragon tells the story of the fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5 and their encounter with the Castle Bravo Hydrogen Bomb Test of January 1954. 

Though they were several miles away, the crew encountered fallout.  Then the United States encountered fallout of a different sort.  The world was outraged and relations between Japan and the US were strained more than before.   

In the end, the "essay" is a little too short to feel like a full meal, but honestly, I don't know what more could be said. 

The Unluckiest Dragon ... the connections to Gojira will be more than a little obvious.  3 out of five atomic breath blasts.

Here's the whole thing:



Up next, Gojira (1954).

Review: TRINITY & BEYOND: THE ATOMIC BOMB MOVIE (1995)

We're not far away now ... the "Inspiration List" is almost done.

Today's documentary is Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (1995).



I'll go first:

Trinity is thorough, going through seemingly every stage of America's nuclear testing program and almost every device detonated.  We're bombarded with codenames and operational codenames and dates.  In large part, this documentary feels like William Shatner is reading the text of a timeline or a series of footnotes from a large term paper on the Cold War.  The information we're given is straight outta Dragnet: "Just the facts, ma'am." 

The footage, however, is amazing.  Some of it we've seen thousands of times (like the GIF above) but here, we're given context and the purpose behind such tests as well as the preparations for tests to study how buildings hold up to blasts.  (You've seen that footage a bunch, too.) 

Despite a couple of interviews, Trinity feels cold.  The music is overly bombastic but the narration certainly isn't.  The details are thick and the footage jawdropping ... but that's it.  There's only the briefest mention of direct impact of the testing (and, coincidentally, it's about the Japanese fishing boat incident that inspired Gojira).  There's a scene featuring a guy talking about radiation and the impact on people ... but even that is clinical.  Nothing at all about the aftermath in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  There's no attempt at heart at all and that's a disappointment. 

Trinity and Beyond ... interesting to watch but don't expect to really feel anything.  2.5 out of five atomic breath blasts.

My son's turn:

Well, this is interesting. The documentery is about code names, destroying things, and Atomic Bombs. So i thought that there so many code names, Too much destruction, and BIG bombs. I think you can blow up the bad guys enough now so STOP MAKING THEM BIGGER!! 

So, rating wise, i'll say 2.3 out of 5 Atomic Bombs of Destruction!!!

Here's the trailer:



Here's a video showing us every nuclear test detonation ever:



Holy crap.

Next up, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

(GIF from skinthiscat)

Review: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE JAPANESE EMPIRE (2011)

Continuing with the so-called "Inspiration" portion of our BIG LIST ...

Today's film is the documentary The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire (2011; part one above, part two here).

I'll go first:

Altogether, this doc is about ninety minutes long.  That's not a lot of time to compress centuries of history and decades of war into.  Still, we get broad strokes. 

Centuries of honor and isolation boil forth after a few short decades of contact with the West and advancement.  The higher classes like the Western style of life but the country as a whole finds itself shunned by the United States and other nations.  Resource poor, Japan lashes out, justifying their invasions of China and Korea as a "liberation" of Asia. 

The Great Depression is a worldwide event.  With the Depression comes desperation.  At home and at the warfront, honor seems to vanish as prisoners are no longer treated respectfully, just to name one example.  And then the beginning of World War II arrives after the retaliatory ABCD Embargoes.  Secret police enforce adherence to the emperor's and the military's ways.  Discipline is enforced in every walk of life.  In time, their early victories turn to defeat and the Empire's leaders are shown to be fallible after all. 

The documentary is entirely made up of archival footage, some of it from the late 1800s.  The narration is broken up with readings of letters from Japanese soldiers and civilians. 

It's full of information, that's for sure.  I learned some new things and I'm sure my son did, too, though a great deal of it probably went over his head. 

Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire ... gets the basic job done in a short amount of time.  3.25 out of five atomic breath blasts.

James' turn (sort of):

It was interesting, but I don't have much to say about it. I know it was the history of Japan but I don't understand how it all fits with Gojira yet.

I'm working on that, son.

Up next, Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie.