Fukushima 50 Review | Road Rash Reviews

4 star harrowing yet inspirational tales of bravery.

Fukushima 50 is a Japanese film based on the novel by Ryûshô Kadota called On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi, with a screenplay by Yoichi Maekawa. It is directed by Setsurô Wakamatsu (The Unbroken, Whiteout). It is presented here in Japanese with English subtitles courtesy of Altitude Film Entertainment.

Based on real life events, this offers an eye-opening inside look at what happened at Fukushima Daiichi as the world watched.

“If the power isn’t restored, the water in the reactor will dry up and overheat. Then it’s a matter of time before the fuel melts. The melted fuel will break out of the containment vessel.”

On March 11th 2011, a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan, causing huge amounts of damage and triggering a tsunami which smashed into the northeastern coast killing thousands of people.

It also swamped the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, submerging and knocking out the diesel back-up generators which had automatically kicked in following the earthquake. The control rods were all in, but without power, the cooling systems began to fail.

Toshio Izaki (Kôichi Satô – When the Last Sword is Drawn) is the Operations Management Shift Supervisor, and he and his men find themselves right on the front line. Everyone else withdraws to the Seismic Isolation Building where the plant manager Masao Yoshida (Ken Watanabe – Tampopo, Godzilla,) coordinates the operation to prevent the loss of the station with catastrophic consequences for not just the local area, but also Japan.

As the men on the ground battle to get power to the cooling systems and later to cool them manually, Masao Yoshida is embroiled in a constant political and corporate struggle, both with the government and with the plant’s owners Tokyo Electric Power Company, whose interference repeatedly threatens to overthrow their attempts to bring the situation under control.

“Radiation will be released, we’ll all be exposed and it’s over.”

Fukushima 50 is the name given by the English speaking media to the employees who remained at the plant at great personal risk. Although the number is inaccurate, the name has stuck and come to symbolize the bravery of all concerned.

With the exception of Masao Yoshida, the characters have been fictionalized, perhaps to avoid possible law suits from the bureaucrats who made an already dangerous situation much worse.

This is a very well made film, and certainly a revelation to Western eyes, the realization of just how much worse it could have been. It’s a powerful and emotional watch and good to see that these brave people are finally given the recognition they deserve.

The release of this film coincides with the 10th anniversary of the tsunami and is long overdue. Something everyone should see and well worth two hours of your time.

“Tell us. Is there any hope for Fukushima?”