How embarrassed I am reading some of these reviews, all about how the reviewers wished that things in this excellent docuseries were different. How it was too slow or too detailed or I suppose, too Japanese. I am embarrassed because most of these reviews have completely failed to appreciate the true art of this series, and sound like they come from a perspective intolerant of anything unlike what they're used to. That is a shame.
With that rant said, I was completely bowled over by this show. If it matters, and I think it does, I watched it in its original Japanese with subtitles, and I simply can't imagine it any other way. I have to admit that I know little of the Japanese people, but if the people portrayed here are examples of their citizenry, I would bow to them every chance I got.
Some have said that the people that worked at Fukushima were heroes, and although they seem that way from a Western perspective, I never had the impression that any of them thought they were being heroic. They were doing their jobs, and not shrinking in the face of this disaster. As I saw it, they were mostly being honorable, not heroic. People were scared, but they didn't hesitate in what they had to do to work through this disaster.
While government officials were concerned with "saving face," they were concerned with the survival of the Japanese people in the Fukushima area and all of northern Japan. Everything they did pointed to that, from staying at their posts for days and working the problem as best they knew how, to making sure that, at the end, the fires and radioactivity was as contained as possible. No one complained or shirked their duty. There were no scenes of someone off in a corner loafing. EVERYONE participated until most of them needed to be evacuated, and some left very reluctantly. Everyone in that plant, from the control center to the emergency operations center were some of the most honorable people I've ever seen. There were scenes that brought me to tears several times because the expression of honorable actions combined with the sacrifice that people would be more than willing to make was breathtaking. When procedures or fixes failed to work, individuals took on the blame themselves even if they were not to blame. Most felt as though they had failed Japan. It's very difficult to wrap my U. S. head around that, but that's what I saw. Breathtaking.
The most refreshing thing about the series is that it was a straight telling of the story. There were no tangents to a secret love story or a spy working behind the scenes, or anything else that Hollywood might want to toss in there to keep the popcorn crowd happy. CHERNOBYL, although excellent and also a 10, injected "extra-added drama" in these ways that were unnecessary to tell the story. Maybe it's me, but with a story like this, I want to see and hear the closest thing to what actually happened as possible. In THE DAYS, or CHERNOBYL, or even TITANIC, you don't need any extra drama, it's all there in the story itself. This is a solid 10 for me and highly, highly recommended in the original Japanese.
With that rant said, I was completely bowled over by this show. If it matters, and I think it does, I watched it in its original Japanese with subtitles, and I simply can't imagine it any other way. I have to admit that I know little of the Japanese people, but if the people portrayed here are examples of their citizenry, I would bow to them every chance I got.
Some have said that the people that worked at Fukushima were heroes, and although they seem that way from a Western perspective, I never had the impression that any of them thought they were being heroic. They were doing their jobs, and not shrinking in the face of this disaster. As I saw it, they were mostly being honorable, not heroic. People were scared, but they didn't hesitate in what they had to do to work through this disaster.
While government officials were concerned with "saving face," they were concerned with the survival of the Japanese people in the Fukushima area and all of northern Japan. Everything they did pointed to that, from staying at their posts for days and working the problem as best they knew how, to making sure that, at the end, the fires and radioactivity was as contained as possible. No one complained or shirked their duty. There were no scenes of someone off in a corner loafing. EVERYONE participated until most of them needed to be evacuated, and some left very reluctantly. Everyone in that plant, from the control center to the emergency operations center were some of the most honorable people I've ever seen. There were scenes that brought me to tears several times because the expression of honorable actions combined with the sacrifice that people would be more than willing to make was breathtaking. When procedures or fixes failed to work, individuals took on the blame themselves even if they were not to blame. Most felt as though they had failed Japan. It's very difficult to wrap my U. S. head around that, but that's what I saw. Breathtaking.
The most refreshing thing about the series is that it was a straight telling of the story. There were no tangents to a secret love story or a spy working behind the scenes, or anything else that Hollywood might want to toss in there to keep the popcorn crowd happy. CHERNOBYL, although excellent and also a 10, injected "extra-added drama" in these ways that were unnecessary to tell the story. Maybe it's me, but with a story like this, I want to see and hear the closest thing to what actually happened as possible. In THE DAYS, or CHERNOBYL, or even TITANIC, you don't need any extra drama, it's all there in the story itself. This is a solid 10 for me and highly, highly recommended in the original Japanese.