Magnitude 7.9

Movie Information:

  • Release Date: August 30, 1980
  • Production Company: Toho
  • Distribution Company: Toho
  • Original Runtime: 127 minutes
  • Atlernate Titles:
    • Japanese: 地震列島
    • Hepburn: Jishin Retto
    • Literal Translation: Earthquake Archipelago
    • U.S. Title: Deathquake

Cast

Hiroshi Katsuno as Dr. Yoichi Kawazu
Kayo Matsuo as Yuko Kawazu
Toshiyuki Nagashima as Masayuki Hashizume
Yumi Takigawa as Tomiko Ashida
Shuji Otaki as Professor Marumo
Shin Saburi as Prime Minister
Chiaki Matsubara as Kazue Umejima
Sachiko Murase as Fusae Kawazu
Kei Sato as Chief Cabinet Secretary
Tatsuo Matsumura as Hiroshizo Ashida
Yoshita Inaba as National Land Agency Secretary
Tsutomu Yamazaki as Meteorological Agency Secretary
Eiji Okada as Professor Watanabe
Kazuo Kato as Professor Ichinoe
Torahiko Hamada as Professor Shimura
Mizuho Suzuki as Chief of Staff
Norihei Miki as Sukegawa
Yusuke Takita as Salaryman
Daigo Kusano as Hige
Toshie Kobayashi as Woman
Toshitaka Ito as Subway Driver
Yoji Matsuda as Ryuji Kawazu
Ken Kazami as TV Producer

Crew

Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka
Assistant Producer: Hideyuki Takai
Director: Kenjiro Omori
Special Effects Director: Teruyoshi Nakano
Screenplay: Kaneto Shindo
Cinematography: Rokuro Nishigaki
Music: Toshiaki Tsushima
Editor: Nobuo Ogawa
Assistant Director: Masahiro Nara
Art Director: Iwao Akune
Lighting: Shinji Kojima
Sound Recording: Kenshiro Hayashi
Production Manager: Takehide Morichi
Assistant Special Effects Director: Eichi Asada
Special Effects Cinematography: Takeshi Yamamoto, Mitsuhiro Hasegawa
Special Effects Art Director: Yasuyuki Inoue
Special Effects Lighting: Masukuni Morimoto
Special Effects Unit Production Manager: Keisuke Shinoda
Visual Effects Optical Photography: Takeshi Miyanishi
Visual Effects Opticals: Tadashi Watanbe
Still Photographer: Yoshinori Ishitsuki

Alternate Versions

International

Deathquake

  • Release Date: February 5, 1982
  • Dub Studio: Omni Productions
  • Runtime: 103 minutes

Dub Cast

Chris Hilton as Dr. Yoichi Kawazu and Chief Cabinet Secretary
Rik Thomas as Professor Marumo, Joint Staff Chairman, and Bearded Man
Warren Rooke as Masayuki Hashizume

Iterations

    • Notes:
      • An international English version was made with dubbing done in Hong Kong. This is a rare Toho dub from the period done with the classic "A group" of kung fu dubbers as opposed to Matthew Oram's group which Toho usually outsourced its dubs to at this time.
      • This international version is cut by about 25 minutes to around 103 minutes, most of the material cut out is character development in the first hour of the picture, most notably a scene where Hashizume visits a farmer who claims that his pheasants are acting funny which means an earthquake is about to happen and a scene with Tomiko and her father. Also cut out is a subplot where Hashizume tries to get Kawazu on a TV show and a scene where Kawazu meets with the Prime Minister in their underground bunker which the Prime Minister hopes "will never be used". The end credits are also cut and replaced with an opening credit sequence superimposed over the aerial footage of Tokyo early in the film.
      • This version was released on VHS in a several countries. In the United States, it was available on VHS from MNTEX Entertainment