Review | Netflix drama review: The Days – Japanese series on Fukushima nuclear disaster is an enthralling account of the 2011 event, with strong hints of HBO’s Chernobyl
- Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster, caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, is the focus of this series produced by Warner Bros Japan
- Koji Yakusho stars as Yoshida, who leads the response efforts on the ground, while Fumiyo Kohinata plays the Japanese prime minister
4/5 stars
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster of 2011 is the subject of The Days, an enthralling new drama series starring Koji Yakusho, Fumiyo Kohinata and Yutaka Takenouchi.
The eight-episode series, produced by Warner Bros Japan, re-enacts the catastrophic impact of the Tohoku earthquake, the largest such event recorded in Japan’s history, which caused a giant tsunami to hit the country’s eastern seaboard on the afternoon of March 11, 2011.
The combination of these events, which struck the power plant with great force and in quick succession, triggered the most serious nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
Creator Jun Masumoto cites three specific publications as primary sources: The Yoshida Testimony, station manager Masao Yoshida’s first-hand account of events; the official Fukushima Nuclear Accident Analysis Report; and journalist Ryusho Kadota’s bestselling book On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi, for which he interviewed more than 90 people who responded to the accident.
That earlier film had the misfortune of arriving in the wake of HBO’s award-winning miniseries Chernobyl, which detailed the events and aftermath of the earlier nuclear disaster in unflinching detail.
The creators of The Days appear to be emulating that show in their efforts to emphasise the grim, toxic reality of the disaster, as experienced by those at ground zero. The results are as shocking as they are genuinely compelling.
Koji Yakusho cuts a stoically impressive figure as Yoshida, the man on the ground tasked with leading the response effort, while attempting to protect his staff from dangerous levels of radiation and the mismanagement of TOEPCO executives, personified by a weaselly Ken Mitsuishi.
On the other end of Yoshida’s phone, Fumiyo Kohinata is equally assured as the prime minister, who becomes increasingly infuriated by the dithering doubletalk of those more concerned with bad press and upsetting corporate clients than saving Tokyo from an impending nuclear winter.
There is a woeful lack of pivotal female characters on display, although criticism for this gender imbalance should probably be levelled at the hiring practices of TOEPCO and the Japanese government, rather than the show’s producers.
As recompense, the show repeatedly cuts away to the family of a young plant worker who has been missing since the initial quake. As hours turn into days, his mother, played by Yuriko Ishida, sits resolutely folding origami cranes as though willing him home to safety. It’s a notable token effort, but adds little to the overall narrative.
Yutaka Takenouchi, Kaoru Kobayashi and Takuma Otoo help flesh out the uniformly excellent cast, as power-plant veterans who form a suicide squad, evacuating their young subordinates to stay behind and open valves, pump seawater into reactors, and expose themselves to crippling amounts of radiation.
On more than one occasion, these stirring scenes of self-sacrifice hit home with surprising effectiveness.
Horror fans will note the macabre influence of acclaimed director Hideo Nakata, whose two episodes in charge feature moments of palpable fear as well as some gruesome depictions of radiation poisoning.
However, it is the show’s principal director, Masaki Nishiura, who ensures viewers remain fully invested in the safety of multiple characters, while ratcheting up an atmosphere of unrelenting intensity, even when depicting a disaster whose outcome remains so fresh in the minds of so many.
The Days will start streaming on Netflix on June 1.
