The Days

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 The Days, an account of the nuclear disaster that happened in Fukushima, is a series worth watching.


You cannot stop comparing it to Chernobyl, but what a joke that was Chernobyl, with English speakers trying to speak with a Russian accent, well some of them anyway - how insulting that was. And yes, I know I know, some of the actors were great actors, but still... it reminded me of The Reader with great Kate Winslet otherwise, but the accent? No, it will not replace German.

Funny that so many in the Anglo-Saxon world care so much about gender, fight against racism and cultural appropriation, and I agree with them, but nothing about true, in-depth cultural appropriation... the colonialism of English everywhere. 

Is the film or series set in Germany? Oh well speak with a German accent. In France? And like in Chocolat get a French actress, with her slight accent, she's speaking French, right? And it goes on and on and on.

At least in some television, there are foreign films, and yes, also in Netflix. What a pleasure to discover new languages, or check that we can still understand a bit of the ones we know. What a pleasure also to see other ways of dying, of loving, of liking...of living!

So, yes, what a pleasure to watch a series in Japanese and to get some Japanese action shot: a man waiting to hear about what is happening in the Nuclear Plant. It would never happen in a Hollywood narrative. 

It seems, as far as I can see, that a lot of effort has been done to narrate the catastrophic events that happens in Fukushima.

I've just briefly read the Guardian review of the series which finds it a bit boring... Interesting... yes perhaps it was not as entertaining as seeing many suffering bodies in the Chernobyl series, sorry yes, not enough family drama, screaming, tears to be shared. Surprise surprise, the Chernobyl series was rated very highly. Don't get me wrong, I liked it as well... but it was impossible for me to get through the wall of English. It should not have been English, it should have been Russian, with maybe a bit of Ukrainian, I don't know. 

This series, I feel, is trying to be as accurate as possible when it came to decision making on the seven days following the tsunami. There was a lot of dignity and restraint in not showing too much of people's suffering, for example nothing was shown about people evacuating their homes. Is this perhaps due to a Japanese aesthetic? I don't know, I do not know enough about Japan - apart from their wonderful Gagaku, which I listen to sometimes, one of the most beautiful and intense piece of music there is on earth.

I'm not sure why the critic in the Guardian feared people may stop watching because they were bored... I found it hard to watch and yes, very precise when it came to decision making. That series is probably closer to the truth than Chernobyl.  

As Asian Wiki states in its review: 'The viewpoints are from government officials, Tokyo Electric Power Company employees, and employees at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.' 

I wonder... how many viewpoints were there in Chernobyl? The subtext was always that Chernobyl, and it is true in a sense, illustrated the end of the Sovietic era. Communism is bad, was the message. 

In The Days, can we go the other way and go as far as saying: Capitalism is bad? Or rather too much consumption of energy is bad? Or is it an illustration of what Japan is today? Still dealing with the second world war? Wanting to be first? 

Whatever the message, nothing was forced down your throat like in the pseudo-Russian series. Following three points of view, it was anything but boring. And who knows? Anyone working in a nuclear plant should watch it and learn? Try to make things better? Because for sure we are not learning to not have big cars, and televisions and computers and mobile phones etc... so there are, and there will be, still, many nuclear plants around. 

The Days speaks about THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, is it a good idea to build nuclear plants? It speaks about Japan after WWII wanting to develop, wanting to become as stupid as the so called 'developped countries' and investing in nuclear energy. 

Sure, the energy produced is phenomenal... but at what price? And for how long? Isn't there a scandal in France right now about the dire state of nuclear power plants? And where to you put old NUCLEAR WASTE? In a bin, discreetly dumped near villages here and there? Who do we think we are? 

I say bring back the candles sometimes, do switch on the light if it's light outside, what's the need and share cars and use trains and buses if they are available. If they are not, make a scandal, sign a petition. 

And push research towards proper sustainable energy but always keep in mind: this will not be enough for all of us, so something cheaper would be to change our mind sets.

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