ER doctor Tsuyoshi Matsuoka receives a patient with a virus unlike anything he's seen before. His symptoms include high fever, convulsions, vomiting of blood and multiple organ failure. Could this be a new form of influenza or is it some other variety of virus? As the situation worsens and more cases begin arriving, a medical officer from the World Health Organization named Eiko Kobayashi is dispatched to the area. At the rate the virus is spreading, the entire city’s transportation system and infrastructure would be brought to a halt within 3 months. Within 6 months it could spread to tens of millions of people--reaching a death toll far worse than any war.
Acting
Tsumabuki's unraveling desperation in packed ER scenes
Direction
Zeze's cold, procedural approach to mass death
Production
Chaotic hospital sets that feel dangerously real
Director
Takahisa Zeze
Satoshi Tsumabuki
Tsuyoshi Matsuoka
Rei Dan
Eiko Kobayashi
Ryoko Kuninaka
Takako Mita
Yoji Tanaka
Eisuke Mita
Chizuru Ikewaki
Mami Manabe
Cunning Takeyama
Kôsuke Suzuki
Ken Mitsuishi
Shôsuke Kamikura
Midoriko Kimura
Miwa Ikehata
Kyūsaku Shimada
Shûji Tachibana
Akio Kaneda
Ryôzô Takayama
Bokuzo Masana
Michikusa Tamura
Ayaka Komatsu
Kyôko Kashimura
Akifumi Miura
Mikio Komori
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released four years before COVID-19, the film's depiction of mask shortages and hospital overflow became eerily prophetic.
Director Takahisa Zeze consulted with actual WHO pandemic response teams; the bureaucratic delays shown were based on real SARS protocols.
JP
