This generously budgeted TV film and effects extravaganza remains one of the rarest films in Sonny Chiba's filmography. The film premiered on Nippon TV in 1980, and completely disappeared until it was screened in a special event in Tokyo in 2013. That screening was reportedly so popular that only a fraction of the customers were able to obtain a ticket. in 2014 Cinema Vera screened the film at the Chiba festival, with plenty of screenings from a relatively worn out 16 mm print.
As suggested by the title (Tokyo Great Earthquake Magnitude 8.1), it's a disaster movie based on the premise of a giant earthquake hitting in Tokyo. This fear stemmed from real life: Tokyo had been destroyed by earthquakes several times, most recently in 1923 when more than 140 000 people died and over 400 000 buildings were destroyed. Disaster movies were not an especially common genre in Japanese cinema, however, kaiju films were. It wasn't such a big step from giant monsters stamping Tokyo to a natural disasters creating similar cinematic destruction.
Indeed, a couple of shots in Tokyo Daijishin Magnitude 8.1 seem so familiar that they just might be old Godzilla sets put into new use. That wouldn't be surprising since many of the filmmakers, including producer Tomoyuki Tanaka and special effects director Koichi Kawakita, and co-production company Toho, had their background in Godzilla films. The obviously fake looking but enjoyable miniature work is actually the best thing about the film. There are a couple of especially memorable scenes, like an aircraft flying over Tokyo that has turned into a giant inferno, and the dawn in the destroyed metropolis.
As character drama Tokyo Daijishin Magnitude 8.1 falls flat. All the usual clichés from helpless grandmother to dumb children and pets escaping on the wrong moment are included, not to mention characters discussing how terrible it would be if an earthquake hit Tokyo - just a few hours before it really happens. That is quite disappointing considering the film was directed by Kiyoshi Nishimura, who had helmed interesting thrillers and existential action films like The Creature Called Man (1970) and Hairpin Circus (1972) in the 1970s.
Sonny Chiba plays the starring role; however, he doesn't have much else to do than run back and forth in the middle of special effects, and worry about supporting characters constantly getting in trouble. It's not even an especially physical role since most of the effects are make-believe (e.g. miniatures and visual effects). His most memorable scene involves blowing up a door while taking cover inside a safe. Yutaka Nakajima, who appeared in some earlier Chiba films like The Executioner (1974), plays the female lead, but her role is very forgettable as well. There are a few other supporting actors as well, but amusingly a great lack of extras. It seems the entire budget was spent on special effects since there are only a handful of people in Tokyo and they miraculously run into each other throughout the film.
Because of its rarity Tokyo Daijishin Magnitude 8.1 will remain to be a sought after movie. It's a decent special effects show that probably deserves to be seen by genre fans, especially for its nostalgia value, but it's hardly a great movie. For fans of Chiba it's passable viewing, but not among his more memorable roles.
As a side note; the film's budget was 150 million yen, which was five times higher than the episode budget for the famous cop-action series Seibu Keisatsu (which is still fondly remembered for its insane action scenes full of car wrecking and explosions) that was screening on TV around the same time. By the 1980s many of the former actions stars, like Yujiro Ishihara, Tetsuya Watari, and Chiba himself were mostly working on TV. Chiba had already starred in various different shows since the 1960s, like Key Hunter (1967-1973) and The Bodyguard (1974). In the 1980s he begun to work primarily for television. It was a great era of epic small screen action entertainment that often rivalled, and sometimes surpassed, the theatrical films. Nothing like that exists on Japanese TV anymore.
* Original title: Tokyo Daijishin Magnitude 8.1 (æ±äº¬å¤§åœ°éœ‡ãƒžã‚°ãƒ‹ãƒãƒ¥ãƒ¼ãƒ‰8.1)
* Director: Kiyoshi Nishimura
* Chiba's role: Starring Role
* Film availability: None (review format: 16mm)
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