Instead of raising the fear of disasters, the various kinds of apocalyptic films all seem to have an optimistic ending where people beat the monster, usually due to some lucky factors. And each film starts with a peaceful city and ends with a destroyed one; the reconstruction process of the damaged city is hardly shown on the screen, which makes the audience believe the rebuilding of a city is much easier and damage is not a big deal.
These all lead to excessive confidence in Japanese culture, where people believe the disaster should happen at regular times and damage contributes to reconstruction and progress.
Such blind confidence breeds the Aum’s millenarian vision. Terrorists in the Aum Shinrikyo make kidnappings and killings attacks to help Japan “reconstruction after catastrophe”.
In my opinion, the overflow of apocalyptic films may have some negative influence on the postwar generation. And the director should reconsider the impact of apocalyptic films.
— Ju Ran 3035844637
You have summarized the piece. Yet, I would like to ask if you think Aum Shinrikyo is an isolated case or a general trend in Japan? It is a little dangerous to conclude with an extreme incident though it is possible that the disaster films have such an impact on society.
I would consider the Aum Shinrikyo more as a special case, however, it may be a negative impact that the apocalyptic films create. So I consider the director of these disaster films should be more careful of what information they are conveying through the film, especially do not omit the reconstruction of the city after a big disaster.