After figuring out the reason why the Chinese government gave up the reparations, Tang Ning began to devote his energy to other things, in fact, what touched Tang Ning the most during this period of time was not the reparation incident, but a disaster movie "Tokyo Sinking" that Toho had just released.

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Sakyo Komatsu, who claimed to have spent nine years researching for the book, which sold more than a million copies as soon as it was published and won the Nebula Award that year (note that this is a Japanese science fiction award, not the Nebula Award that can be compared to the Hugo Award in the science fiction world). ）

Although the film was shot in just four months, it set a staggering record of 8.8 million viewers and earned more than 2 billion yen, and Akikei Nakano, who supervised the special photography, received the Special Effects Award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. The success of this work established Shiro Moriya's position as the director of major films such as Hakko Tayama in the future.

Although Downing can be regarded as a movie tycoon now, and there are many good movies produced by his subordinates, this movie still shocked him, of course, it was not those special effects scenes that shocked him, after all, the technology in 1973 cannot be compared with 2015, but the sense of distress embodied in this movie shocked Downing.

Also about the destruction of the homeland, "Japan Sinks" is significantly different from many Hollywood disaster movies. Compared with the entertainment mentality and heroic saviorianism in Hollywood disaster films, Japanese disaster films often have a plot of pathos and self-pity, and under this plot is the sense of mission and distress of the Japanese to defend the right to multiply and unyieldingly, which is quite prominent in "Japan Sinks".

Due to the special geographical location and special historical problems, earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear threats have always been nightmares in the hearts of the Japanese people, and they have long been on pins and needles, coupled with the innate island mentality. The sense of crisis has become a collective psychology of the Japanese nation. This also explains why, even in the 70s, when Japan's economy was growing rapidly and the people were prosperous, they still made "self-defeating" movies like "Japan Sinks".

In "The Sinking of Japan," he argues that the geological plates of the Japanese archipelago have changed dramatically and unprecedentedly, resulting in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis that have sunk much of Japan to the bottom of the sea. Although this is hypothetical, it has a certain scientific basis based on geology and the geographical location of Japan.

The film begins with scientists detecting that Japan will sink. From the upper echelons of the government, scientists to ordinary people, the reactions and countermeasures at all levels have been displayed in detail, and some geological knowledge has been explained to the audience through the government meeting, which has become simple to understand, and focuses on depicting the love and life of several ordinary people in the face of disasters, and has a lot of life atmosphere.

Generally speaking, disaster movies are about showing the audience a thrilling disaster scene, stimulating the audience's sense of fear, and relieving stress from the opposite direction. In order to achieve the purpose of entertainment, the warning effect often appears as an additional element.

"Japan Sinks" is not, it is more like the ultimate thinking of the Japanese about their future destiny, which reflects the innate sense of distress of the island nation of the Japanese people, which is not only a real sense of fear, but also like a national rehearsal to prepare for the worst. In the movie, when the end comes, the Japanese ask for help from all over the world. Asking other countries to take in a large number of Japanese refugees can be seen as a kind of tentative positioning of the Japanese in the eyes of the world.

The film deliberately shows China's generosity and generosity. This detail can be described as meaningful, firstly, this film was born in the era of normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, and it is not excluded that it has a certain sense of political closeness, and secondly, China and Japan are separated by a strip of water, with a long historical relationship and complex practical relations. No one can do without anyone. It can be seen that from a realistic and objective point of view, struggle is not the best way to solve problems, just like the Japanese prime minister said in the film, despite all the flaws and deficiencies in human beings, "human blood is always hot". He believed this, and most of us believe this, that in the face of natural and man-made disasters, the light of humanity can often cover out all the dark things.

In "Japan Sinks", the fate of the Yamato nation is roughly like this, when the population of Japan was more than 100 million, but only 30 million survived with the help of other continental countries, and from then on they would have no land of their own and become international refugees. Although human society is becoming more and more civilized and humanism has become an important norm in international relations, the psychology of a nation without its own country is destined to have no sense of belonging, which is not difficult to understand why the Gypsies are often discriminated against as a famous wandering people, why the Jews would rather offend the whole world than establish a state in the Middle East, and in the same way, we can also understand why Japan launched a war of territorial expansion in Asia, because they have been afraid and worried all the time.

If we approach this issue with an objective and calm mind, we will understand that their instinct to expand for living space is actually the same as our buying a house and living, not much different, of course, their way is wrong. Different from the expansion of the war in reality, the movie "Japan Sinks" goes to the other extreme of psychological fear, which is an extreme thinking of the Japanese about their future destiny, thinking of the previous major earthquakes in Japanese history, it should be understood that the fear of the Japanese is fundamentally different from the entertainment mentality of Hollywood movies.

The film reflects Japan's collective nightmare as a nation-state. Historically, the most discussed aspect of the island mentality in Japanese culture is the core of this topic as a strong potential existential crisis given to the Japanese national psyche due to limited geographical space, lack of natural resources, frequent geological disasters, and narrow strategic depth.

Especially after the Meiji Restoration, the logic of market and capital expansion further amplified Japan's sense of crisis as an island nation, which became an important cultural basis for Japan to embark on the political line of colonial expansion. This shift in political and national strategy has brought profound historical and social disasters to neighboring Asian countries. Previously, many countries, including China, have seen Japan's pursuit of "secession from Asia and entry into Europe" as the main threat to the turbulent and unbalanced relations in Asia when they understand and reflect on Japan's national strategy. (To be continued.) )