Japan Sinks: 2020 Theatrical Edition

Following a deadly earthquake that rips through Japan and begins to submerge its islands, teenage athlete Ayumu Mutoh sets out with her family and friends in search of higher ground. With scant access to information, the group is forced to rely on intuition and practical know-how to find their way. As their meandering, increasingly tragic journey brings them in contact with the best and the worst faces of humanity, Ayumu and her younger brother Go learn to cope with grief and loss.

An anime series subsequently recut for theatrical release, Yuasa Masaaki’s Japan Sinks: 2020 transplants Komatsu Sakyo's 1973 source novel to the present day, infusing it with a startling racial and climate consciousness. The film takes a microscopic view of the cataclysm, focusing on the Mutoh family’s fight for survival and coloured by Ayumu’s exacerbating guilt and helplessness. With a fine eye, it cuts through Japanese exceptionalism and xenophobia, celebrating instead the indomitable spirit of a nation.

The film puts the Mutoh family through an escalation of catastrophes and constantly changing scenery, which permits Yuasa to sumptuously animate every element of nature. With its remarkable, counter-intuitive soundtrack and its subtle approach to an expressionistic landscape, Japan Sinks: 2020 may be the filmmaker’s most tonally complex and emotionally resonant work to date.

– Srikanth Srinivasan