In his article, Tsutsui makes a connection between the popularity of disaster films in Japan and social problems in Japan. It is well known that disaster films illustrate the devastating impact that disasters have on society and the built environment. It is popular for a reason: Japan is known as a nation with a high density of citizens, and indeed a big income gap between the rich and poor. Films about disasters often depict such a world after a huge disaster; the world is rebuilt to eliminate the gap. In such a world, everyone gets to begin on equal footing. No matter how wealthy or poor you are, you are equally affected by a world disaster. Citizen’s anger towards inequality is cured by this sense of equality; it distracts citizens from anxiety and wounds about reality. As a result, the visuals of disasters relieve people of their everyday stress. The people realized that “staying alive” is such a rare opportunity that deserves to be cherished and forget about the pressure accumulated among their workplace studies. In fact, Japan has been struck by countless natural or man-made disasters, which have helped disaster films become a reflection of the long history of Japan, reminding people of the old times along with cherishing the present good times. For instance, Godzilla, a symbol of nuclear weapon is enormous, destructive, prehistoric that is empowered by nuclear radiation. With the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons, and it’s created to remind people how nuclear weapon is the worst possible disaster that could happen to human kind.
Jingyang Guo 3035853975
It appears that you are responding to Tsutsui’s reading instead. You covered various possible reasons for the popularity of the disaster film genre in Japan in your response. Perhaps the element of time can help us further discuss the continuities and discontinuities within the genre.