Prophecies of Nostradamus
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| Prophecies of Nostradamus | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Toshio Masuda |
| Starring | Tetsuro Tamba |
| Music by | Isao Tomita |
| Release date(s) | 1974 |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Preceded by | The Last War |
Prophecies of Nostradamus (Nosutoradamusu no daiyogen), also known as The Last Days of Planet Earth or Catastrophe: 1999 is an experimental 1974 feature film by Toshio Masuda, inspired by the prophecies of Nostradamus. The film credits Toshio Yasumi as principal screenwriter, though Yasumi did not actually work on the film. Instead, Yoshimitsu Banno revised his script for The Last War (1961) and Yasumi was credited out of respect.
The film centers around the family of a scientist, Dr. Nishiyama (Tetsuro Tamba), who are essentially the same roles as those in the 1961 film. While the former film emphasized family melodrama, the new film reduced these scenes to a string, concentrating on hallucinogenic international imagery in a manner looking forward to such films as Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka.
In the film, scientific advances cause an outbreak of giant slugs, oversized bats, children with genetic mutations enhancing their physical or mental abilities, and bizarre changes in weather, such as snow falling on the pyramids. The film gets bleaker and bleaker, until Dr. Nishiyama hypothesizes a scenario that re-edits the climactic war footage from The Last War, augmenting them with a scene of the surviving humans, looking like sufferers of neurofibromatosis, fighting over who gets to eat a snake.
Also notable in the film is the symphonic score composed and conducted by Isao Tomita, with Tomita overdubbing his performances on a synthesizer as a solo instrument.
Although the film does utilize stock footage, primarily drawn from the film's little-seen ur-film, the film has its own unique special effects. One shot in particular, featuring a chain reaction of exploding vehicles, can be seen in nearly every subsequent Toho science fiction film, up to and including The Return of Godzilla, where the shot was printed in reverse and was finally retired. In this film, the shot is intercut with scenes of human tragedy, as a mad driver tries to force his way through a traffic jam.
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