Tidal Wave

Directed by Shirō Moritani and produced by Toho, the 1973 Japanese disaster and science fiction film Nihon Chinbotsu was adapted by Shinobu Hashimoto and Sakyo Komatsu from Komatsu's novel published the same year. Starring Keiju Kobayashi, Hiroshi Fujioka and Ayumi Ishida, the story follows geophysicist Dr. Tadokoro and submarine pilot Onodera, who discover that the Japanese archipelago is collapsing along the ocean floor. Their warnings are initially dismissed, but volcanic eruptions and a devastating earthquake force the government to accept that the nation will sink and to negotiate international evacuation plans.

For the first time in Japanese cinema, leading geophysicists, seismologists, oceanographers and volcanologists served as consultants. The film became Japan's box-office champion, earning around 4.47 billion yen. A heavily re-edited version with new footage was released in the United States in 1975 by Roger Corman under the title Tidal Wave.