Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki Special effects and pyrotechnics are the only virtues in this otherwise wholly forgettable little Japanese disaster flick, about a monstrous-sized earthquake occurring in Japan. First 45-minutes are little more than melodramatics between geologist and his family, and his possible, impending divorce, and the disgrace of his family's name. He believes a major earthquake will strike Japan in the very near future, but is not believed. The film eventually comes alive in a well done special effects sequence where a Japanese city is destroyed (or a miniature version of it, anyway) and buildings crumble, cars crash, cameras shake, and, in my opinion, a well-staged plane crashes while coming in for a landing, the city is thrown into chaos and panics when they realise he was unfortunately correct. These scenes are, in my mind anyway, quite well done and impressive, the only reason to search for this film, really, but it is a LONG wait for them. I'm rewatching this and writing a review of this only couple of days after the 9.0 earthquake occurred in Japan, so we're finding out, in real life, what the Japanese and he rest of the world's response would be to just such an event. Or is that what full and complete 127-minute version of the film deals with? Perhaps that improves the American 96-minute version, with more miniature effects and a more complete ending? Or was that just more soap opera baloney in the first scenes? In the America version, the ending also probably only makes sense to people who are aware of the Japanese veneration of suicide.

gavin6942 Tokyo has not seen an earthquake over 5.0 in a long time (1923), so this generation has gone soft. What will they do when hit by a 7.9 quake? Because one is projected to happen within one month...Directed by Kenjiro Ohmori, who is not even known in Japan for anything.The Fortune 5 DVD was apparently copied from VHS, with the jumpy frames and snow. The dubbing is what you might expect. Sometimes called "Earthquake 7.9" and other times "Megaforce 7.9" or even "Deathquake".There is a scene where they purposely crash cars head-on into each other, in order to design a fireproof automobile. Why? Because "in an earthquake, cars will burn first". And in an earthquake, it is fire that kills, not the shaking.There are some interesting Japanese cultural aspects, with a focus on disgrace of a family name, rather than an individual -- the prediction of an earthquake is a big deal, it seems.

Michael_Elliott Earthquake 7.9 (1980) ** (out of 4) Japanese disaster film that not only rips off Earthquake but also mixes in some The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. The film tells the story of a young scientist who believes an earthquake will hit Tokyo by the end of the month yet no one believes him. Sure enough a massive earthquake hits and levels the city to pure rubble that the city hasn't seen since it was last attacked by Godzilla. I watched the American version of this film, which is cut by nearly thirty-minutes but from what I've read the only thing edited out are dialogue scenes at the start of the film. I must admit that I'm thankful I watched this cut version as the dialogue scenes at the start of the film are just downright dreadful and I can only imagine how much worse they would have been with a half hour more. These early build up scenes are horrid in just about any disaster movie no matter if they're from America, Italy or Japan but the ones here are just downright incredible in their badness. The worst thing is the music score, which starts to thunder and pound whenever something "dramatic" happens. This is so annoying that at times I was hoping a real earthquake would hit my town so that I could stop the movie. The second half of the film is actually a lot better but in a campy fashion. The earthquake sequences are poorly done and features some bad special effects but if you've seen any of the Toho Godzilla films with their cardboard cities being destroyed then you should know what to expect. The effects are just as bad here with the worst (or most laughable) scene coming when an airplane is trying to land but ends up breaking apart. The story of our hero having to take charge of a group of people is just as silly but it makes for a few good laughs including a sequence ripped off from The Poseidon Adventure where we get an underwater swim. Fans of disaster movies might want to check this out just to see what other countries were doing but I seriously doubt too many are going to get any entertainment out of this unless they're fans of camp.

Angel Meiru I remember seeing the International version of "DeathQuake", as released by the good folks at Toho, in a Science class at my High School Jr. year, and boy, it is still stuck on me for that long. It is kinda like Japan's answer to an Irwin Allen film.It starts out with a seismic wave researcher, whom predicted the next Tokyo/Yokohama earthquake, just like his psychic great-grandfather did in 1923. Hardly anyone believes him, until it is too late. The intensity of the Earthquake (in the int. version, it is said to be magnitude 10!) is probably the most intense of any disaster film. We could only imagine this happening and pray for no earthquake that intense to hit anywhere ever again.*SPOILER* Probably the most touching and personal favorite scene is where the researcher and other main characters rescues a little girl from being crushed by flaming debris. How can that not tug your heartstrings?*END OF SPOILER*