JAMSTEC - the movie!

This film has been fairly popular in Japan, it seems - at least, our local video rental has been pushing it - so we succumbed to their temptations yesterday and rented a copy. It's called "Nippon Chinbotsu" (日本沈没) which means "Japan sinks" and is actually a remake of a 1973 film of the same name. The plot is something silly about plate tectonics dragging Japan under the sea, and I won't spoil it for those who might want to watch other than to say there are lots of volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunami. I'm not sure if and when it might be released internationally, this version was Japanese only but simple enough for us to follow most of what passed for a plot.

JAMSTEC had a substantial starring role, mostly in the form of the research vessels that have to be used to investigate the problem and try to save Japan from its fiery and watery fate. For some reason the Shinkai ("Depths of the ocean") submersibles were renamed Wadatsumi (which may mean "sea" or "Poseidon", although my dictionary only has watatsumi for those), but the massive drilling ship Chikyuu ("Earth") kept its name. I'm tempted to say something cynical about spending science budget on expensive props for trashy films but the filming probably didn't disrupt research much and the publicity probably made it well worth their while. Needless to say, it doesn't exactly represent my typical day...