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Fukkatsu no Hi
Virus
Day of Resurrection / The End / Overkill - Durch die Hölle zur Ewigkeit
Japan 1980
produced by Haruki Kadokawa, Takashi Ohashi, Yutaka Okada for Haruki Kadokawa Productions/TBS (= Tokyo Broadcasting System)
directed by Kinji Fukasaku
starring Masao Kusakari, Bo Svenson, George Kennedy, Chuck Connors, Olivia Hussey, Glenn Ford, Robert Vaughn, Henry Silva, George Touliatos, Stuart Gillard, Edward James Olmos, Cec Linder, Tsunehiko Watase, Isao Natsuyagi, Sonny Chiba, Kensaku Morita, Toshiyuki Nagashima, Stephanie Faulkner, Nicholas Campbell, Chris Wiggins, John Evans, Joan Beldam, Eve Crawford, Jon Granik, Ara Hovanessian, Ted Follows, John Bayliss, William Ross, Ken Camroux, Matt Hawthorne, Gordon Thompson, Jan Muszynski, Charles Northcote, Yumi Takigawa, Mitsuko Oka, Yoshitaka Kase, Ken Ogata, Ichiro Kijima, Sanae Nakahara, Yukiko Watanabe, Larry Reynolds, Dan Kippy, David Gardner, William Binney, Ron Hartman, Charles D. George, Colin Fox, Jefferson Mappin, Richard Ayres, Dick Grant, Tyler Miller, Ken Pogue
screenplay by Koji Takada, Kinji Fukasaku, Gregory Knapp, based on the novel by Sakyo Komatsu, music by Kentaro Haneda, Teo Macero, special effects by Ichiro Higa, Coast Special Effects
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Doctor Meyer (Stuart Gillard) has developed an all powerful virus, but
only too late does he learn that the army actually plans to use it in
warfare, and when he does, he gets thrown into the loonie bin, and the
virus is stolen ... and later released in an accident, killing before long
humankind as such. All humankind? Nope, the crew of an international
research facility in the antarctica survives the ordeal because the virus
cannot survive in the cold. But surviving a bacteriological attack does
not save these humans yet, because both Washington and Moscow have
activated their automatic nuclear defense systems before being depopulized
by the virus, and Antarctica's resident scientist Yoshizumi (Masao
Kusakari) just happens to know an earthquake caused by deep sea drilling
will shake Washington in a month or so, an earthquake that will set off
the defense system. Now that would only be half as bad wouldn't Moscow
have aimed some nuclear warheads at the Antarctic research station ... Yoshizumi
and all-American hero Carter (Bo Svenson) are supplied with a newly
developed antivirus to survive the virus, then they travel to Washington.
When they arrive, the earth is already shattering, and Carter dies under
the debris, but Yoshizumi makes it to the main computer of the defense
system - moments too late though, and everything goes up in nuclear
mushrooms. Yoshizumi survives though in the bunker the main computer was
at, then he walks all the way back to Antarctica to reunite with the woman
he loves (Olivia Hussey), who was fortunately among the people who were
evacuated from the research station before the big bang ...
This
was supposed to be a very ambitious film about the end of the world with
Cold War undercurrents and a pacifist message - but it has turned out to
be an overly convoluted disaster movie that has little new to add to the
topic and is not exactly original concerning its message, either. Plus due
to the film's many narrative threads, one repeatedly loses sight of the
(feeble) main plot, which also affects the basic tension of the film. Not
really worth your while.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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