What a view | Netflix disaster series Japan Sinks: People of Hope and Apple TV+ show Invasion examine our impending doom
- Human activity and global warming threaten to submerge part of the country in Netflix’s Japan Sinks: People of Hope, an adaptation of a 1973 disaster novel
- An alien race threatens our planet in Apple TV+’s Invasion, while Netflix series The Billion Dollar Code tells how a duo sued Google in 2014 over software
Look, absolute climatic apocalypse with the associated planetary destruction isn’t all bad: at least it’s inspiring multiple artistic endeavours, among them another adaptation of Sakyo Komatsu’s 1973 disaster novel Japan Sinks, seen previously as an animated series.
Upsetting the apple cart of complacency is seismologist and calamity predictor Yusuke Tadokoro (Teruyuki Kagawa). Because he’s a maverick scientist whose eccentricity means he even talks like a cartoon character, most suits consider him easily dismissible. Less convinced are the environment ministry’s Keishi Amami (Shun Oguri) and journalist Minori Shiina (Anne Watanabe), who must shatter the culture (and conspiracy) of conservatism to save lives.
Bureaucrats fiddling while the world burns isn’t a new story – although it has remained current for decades. Much like the sacrificing of solid science for the sake of economics and political popularity ratings.
