Fukushima 50 (Film)
Ten years ago the world looked on as Japan battled to avert a potentially world-changing catastrophe after a massive earthquake and then an unprecedented tsunami – which then caused a nuclear reactor leak. This riveting, and true story is told in the new film ‘Fukushima 50.’50 represents the number of men, and women – workers at the Japanese power plant – who worked days on end to prevent a catastrophe that could’ve caused radiation to leak, which would’ve affected most of Japan.
Based on the extraordinary, jaw-dropping book by Ryusho Kadota, On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi, the film, directed by Setsurô Wakamatsu (‘Whiteout’), rivals most of Hollywoods’ disaster epics.
Ken Watanabe stars as the head of the power plant who must act fast to prevent total destruction, and rally his workers to action while the higher-echelon bureaucrats fail to grasp the enormity of the situation. The film drives home the staggering impact of the incident on Japan, still being felt a decade later, but is a stark reminder that, had it not been for the titular 50, things could have turned out a lot, lot worse.
‘Fukushima 50’ is a moving and extremely timely human drama about people pulling together in a time of unprecedented crisis.
