Actor Ken Watanabe and director Setsuro Wakamatsu have a history of working together on films about real-life bravery in the face of disaster. They're reuniting for the story of heroism during the 2011 nuclear plant disaster in Fukushima called Fukushima 50.
Watanabe and Koichi Sato are starring as two of the workers at the plant who were caught up when a post-earthquake tsunami hit the building, causing a meltdown of the core reactors and threatening the nearby Fukushima Daiichi , with 50 million people living within 150 miles of the accident. A group of 50 workers, including shift supervisor Isaki (Sato) and site superintendent Yoshida (Watanabe) risked their lives to stay at the plant and prevent total destruction, saving many people. Yoichi Maekawa adapted Ryusho Kadota’s book On The Brink: The Inside Story Of Fukushima Daiichi, which chronicled the event.
"The Fukushima accident shook not only the people of Japan but also around the world," says Wakamatsu. "This film is about the power plant workers on the front line who faced an unprecedented crisis and risked their lives to save their families, their hometown and avert a disaster of global magnitude." There's no word yet on when the film will be in cinemas.
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