Disaster and Rebirth in Japanese Cinema will mark the Tohoku disaster of March 11, 2011, when an earthquake triggered a huge tsunami that destroyed much of the Northern part of the main Japanese island of Honshu. The tsunami also resulted in a nuclear crisis after waves damaged one of the country’s power plants.

Two hugely popular Japanese disaster films, Ponyo (2008) and Godzilla (1954), will be screened during the event at The Forum on March 13.

In an introduction to the films, organiser Dr Rayna Denison, of UEA’s School of Film, Television and Media Studies, will look back over the two years since the tsunami to see the progress that has been made in rebuilding the villages, towns and cities damaged.

Dr Denison said: “This screening features the best of Japanese disaster films, Hayao Miyzaki’s Ponyo and Ishiro Honda’s original Godzilla film. Ponyo explores the magic, majesty and dangers of the sea; whereas, in the godfather of all Japanese disaster films, Godzilla’s destruction of Tokyo is laced with anti-nuclear anxieties.

“We hope that in showing these films and discussing their relationship to the real Tohoku disaster of March 2011, audiences will better understand the way Japanese filmmakers try to deal with, and make sense of, the long history of environmental and man-made disaster in Japan.”

Disaster and Rebirth in Japanese Cinema takes place on Wednesday March 13 in The Curve at the Forum, Norwich, from 5pm. The screenings are free to attend and all are welcome.

The event is part of the Japanese Art Through Movies film screening series, which is sponsored by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and supported by UEA and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.