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Earlier today when I saw they riffed Virus I thought for a moment they meant the Jamie Lee Curtis film and was surprised as that would of been a just the jokes. Till I checked it and saw when it was from (I mean it’s not that uncommon of a film)
Looks like a good choice!
Trivia from IMDb:
Kinji Fukasaku had hired an American company to do the special effects. When he saw the results he disapproved and stated that he could not use it because it looked too realistic. He would hire a Japanese company to do the work instead. The reason being was to focus on creating evocative and poetic images instead.
It was the most expensive Japanese film made up to that point.
Haruki Kadokawa was the heir to a major publishing empire. He entered the film business in the mid 1970s with some high-profile features. This was to be his big breakthrough in the international market. He tried to ensure its success by casting some U.S. stars and doing major international promotion (under the international title ‘Virus’). However, the film was a major flop. Although it may have had some special showings in the U.S., it did not receive a general release. It was sold directly to pay television in an edited one hundred eight-minute version.
Haruki Kadokawa originally wanted John Frankenheimer to direct.
Although this film is about a pandemic, with the exception for one scene in a hospital, –almost no characters are seen wearing ‘respiratory-covering’ masks (which get widely worn in case of any pandemic).
Goofs from IMDb. One Crazy credit.
The ARS (a device that launches many nuclear missiles in retaliation to a strike) is activated by one man pushing a few buttons. Devices that launch nuclear missiles are normally (and believably) portrayed as requiring launch codes, special keys and the authorization of at least two people.
It is highly improbable that any systems (even nuclear launch systems) could be still powered after a full year with out someone alive to maintain them. If all human operators would vanish from a nuclear power plant it is safe to assume that something bad would happen very soon.
The backpack radio shown could not transmit up an elevator shaft and then far enough downstream to reach a submerged sub.
In one scene, Senator Barkley and President Richardson are both quite conscious before they suddenly die of the virus. In reality, a person is usually pretty critical (in a ‘grave’ state) before they succumb to it.
The survivors living on the Antarctic bases, appear like they’re living normal life in civilization. In real-life, their physical appearance would change (like becoming thinner), due to not living in normal civilization for a long time.
Upon entering the bunker, Yoshizumi watches in horror on several monitors as nuclear rockets launch all over the world. The footage on many of these monitors feature hand-held camera work. Due to the virus sweeping the world many months earlier, there would be no one alive at that point to be operating these cameras.
The chamber where the ARS is located is reached by Yoshizumi and Carter simply blowing two doors open with plastique and climbing down an elevator shaft. A chamber containing a doomsday device probably contains more elaborate security features, such as blast doors.
Major Carter points out to Admiral Conway that selecting a random person (by them unfolding a particular playing card) to head to Washington D.C. and deactivate the nukes is ‘stupid’, then Carter states that he himself is the most capable to do the mission. Later, Yoshizumi tries to join Carter by showing him that he unfolded the particular card and has to join him, that would be useless since the idea (by choosing a random person) was withdrawn before it could get started.
When Yoshizumi visits the ruins of a church, an internal monologue depicts him ‘talking’ to a corpse. The corpse ‘asks’ Yoshizumi if his girlfriend’s child is his. Yoshizumi responds ‘No, but I love him very much.’ The child in question is a girl.
The Japanese version mixes English and Japanese writing during the opening credit sequence. The English-speaking actors’ names are in English and the Japanese cast and crew members’ names are in Japanese.
I think I saw this once. Not too bad if I remember.
Nice riffing and a decent movie. I like morbid humor.