Like every other ‘90s kid who was just getting into the action genre, Speed was (and still is) my go-to movie when I was in the mood for some thrills and chills. Nowadays, so many movies have strapped bombs to locomotives ready to be triggered if said locomotives fail to maintain a certain velocity that the concept won’t exactly surprise anybody. But back then, watching Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock maneuver a public bus while trying to figure out ways to thwart the bomber was nerve-wracking and exciting. Later on, when I was in the mood for some ‘80s Bollywood movies, I watched The Burning Train. It was undoubtedly one of the best action movies of the era and continues to give a lot of modern Hindi films a run for their money. With all that said, it was only recently that I learned that both of them were “inspired” by the action classic The Bullet Train, starring the one and only Sonny Chiba. And now we have its legacy sequel, Bullet Train Explosion, on our hands. Is it any good? Let’s find out.
Shinji Higuchi’s Bullet Train Explosion, written by Kazuhiro Nakagawa and Norichika Oba, is primarily told through the eyes of Takaichi, the conductor of the Hayabusa 60 Shinkansen that’s traveling from Aomori City to Tokyo. The train is filled with around 400 people, including the 2 conductors, the driver, and the attendants. Right after it leaves the station, the headquarters of the East Japan Railway Company gets an anonymous phone call, with the individual claiming that there’s a bomb on the Hayabusa 60 bullet train that’ll go off if the speed drops below 100 kmph. And if the government can collect 100 billion yen from the people of Japan and give it to the bomber, the explosives will be deactivated. Initially, it seems like a prank, but, as promised by the caller, when a freight train at the Aomori-Higashi station gets blown to smithereens as its speed drops below 5 kmph, everyone realizes that the threat is real. When the general commander of the East Japan Railway General Operation Center, Kasagi, is notified about this situation, he and his team begin coming up with methods to save the passengers and staff aboard that train, while Takaichi is tasked with keeping everyone calm. As tensions rise, things get out of control, thereby complicating the task of defusing the bomb and understanding the motivation of the perpetrator.
Higuchi’s Netflix film is a modern take on The Bullet Train. It’s a legacy sequel to the 1975 film. The screenplay is laced with commentary on humanity, mental health, and professionalism. And it works for the most part. The first hour and 15 minutes is pretty much perfect. There’s a barrage of characters that are introduced, but all of them feel distinct and memorable in their own ways, which is definitely not as easy as it looks. The stakes are clear. The conflicts are more or less realistic. The scenarios are creative enough to keep you engaged. But after going past the midway point, the writers try to focus on establishing the connection between this film and the one conceptualized by Ari Kato, fleshing out the reason why the bomber is recreating a popular incident, and sending some universally relevant message to the viewers. That’s where the film kind of falters because the callbacks, the motive (of the bomber), and the themes are okay at best. To be honest, if all those plotlines got more time to marinate, I can see it working. However, all that information is delivered so hurriedly, since the movie has to go back to doing action-oriented stuff, the energy spent on decoding it feels a bit futile.
On a technical level, Bullet Train Explosion is so good that it seems unfair that we’re watching it on our laptops and TVs instead of the big screen. As per the reports, the real East Japan Railway Company provided actual bullet trains, access to train stations, and tracking and position monitoring systems in order to make the movie look as authentic as possible. So, every shot that makes you go, “That doesn’t look CGI,” has probably been shot without the use of any CGI (maybe some VFX was involved). Meanwhile, the action-heavy sequences where bullet trains collide with one another or passengers are transported from one bogie to another with the help of a makeshift bridge—that’s obviously not done for real. However, the work done by the departments in charge of the CGI, VFX, SFX, and stunts is amazing enough to fool you. A major chunk of Shinji Higuchi’s filmography is filled with larger-than-life projects, like Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman, thereby making this his most small-scale outing. Yet, it is jam-packed with some of the most over-the-top camerawork, kinetic editing, and deft handling of tone and pacing that you have ever seen, especially in that first half. Heck, that first half is so good that it really makes me wish Higuchi and his team put some more thought into whatever they were trying to achieve in that second half.
The performances from the entire cast of Bullet Train Explosion are perfect. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi is so stoic throughout the film that you actually want him to break character, at least once, in the film. Since that also happens to be one of the things that the main antagonist of the movie wants, you do get to see him (almost) lash out, and it’s surprisingly gut-wrenching. Kanata Hosoda displays that unique blend of enthusiasm and inexperience (which can sometimes be confused for incompetence) that new employees usually have. Non’s screen time is minimal, but she is the centerpiece of some of the film’s most pivotal sequences, and she shines in those moments. Jun Kaname probably plays the most punchable character in the movie, and I applaud him for getting on everybody’s nerves. Machiko Ono seems to be the punching bag of the film, but the subtle ways in which she switches gears over to the serious side of things are beautiful. Hana Toyoshima is spectacular, and the range that she displays during the final act will give you goosebumps. Daisuke Kuroda, Suzuka Ohgo, Takumi Saitoh, and the rest of the supporting cast are all brilliant. I apologize for not being able to mention all of their names, because there are so many actors involved; however, I can confidently say that they all deserve a round of applause for their work.
If you have reached this section of the review, I’m sure you have made up your mind about whether or not you want to watch Bullet Train Explosion. So, I’m going to dive into some minor spoilers. If you don’t want to read that, clear off. If you want to continue reading, please know that you have been warned. Okay, I’ve said that I don’t really like the second half of the film all that much. But, just for the sake of it, if I view the bomber’s reasoning in a vacuum, I kind of admire it. I mean, imagine there’s an old guy that you have known your entire life. And that geriatric numbnut keeps telling the same story every day just to prove how awesome he is. However, due to some recent studies and analyses, you come to know that this incredibly annoying man has been lying through his teeth. And the damage that his hollow narrative has done to your psyche as well as the rest of the country is irreparable. Hence, you decide to destroy the very thing that this old guy has built his whole identity and legacy around in the most audacious way imaginable. That’s hilarious and oddly relatable because men with nothing to show other than their bag of lies and abusive behavior can drive you nuts! If you find that to be interesting, feel free to give Bullet Train Explosion a watch.
