Latest news with #TheBulletTrain
Yomiuri Shimbun
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Netflix's ‘Bullet Train Explosion' a Thrilling Reboot of '75 Classic; ‘Shin Godzilla' Director Skilfully Revives Story
Tsuyoshi Kusanagi plays Takaichi, a conductor on the titular bullet train, in the film 'Shinkansen Daibakuha' ('Bullet Train Explosion'), available worldwide exclusively on Netflix. As a Shinkansen bullet train starts its journey, it soon becomes clear the train is rigged with at least one bomb. However, it must keep running to avoid setting off the explosives. 'Shinkansen Daibakuha' ('Bullet Train Explosion') is a Netflix reboot of the 1975 film of the same Japanese name, called 'The Bullet Train' in English releases, produced by Toei Co. But the new film is no mere rehash — rather, it's yet another masterpiece directed by Shinji Higuchi, who has breathed new life into classic tokusatu sci-fi films and made such gems as 'Shin Godzilla.' Viewers are sure to be entertained by the speed, thrills and vision of hope for society. The original film is famous for portraying the suspense of an unstoppable vehicle long before 1994 U.S. blockbuster 'Speed.' In the reboot, the bullet train is a Tokyo-bound Hayabusa No. 60 on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, departing from Shin-Aomori Station. A phone call from an anonymous culprit says the train will explode the moment its speed falls below 100 kph. The ransom for deactivating the bomb is ¥100 billion and to be paid by the people of Japan. Still, the government sticks to its basic policy of not negotiating with terrorists. So, what should be done to save the passengers? Is it possible to avoid an explosion at the destination? The railway men and women mount a rescue operation. On the front line of the operation is conductor Takaichi (played by Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), who believes the top priority should be the passengers' safety. East Japan Railway Co. collaborated specially with production, which allowed a bullet train of the same type as Hayabusa No. 60 to make seven round-trip journeys for filming. Such real objects are skillfully implemented, along with special effects and top quality hand-made props, like one-sixth-scale miniatures. Together they all created dynamic, heart-racing visuals, along with multiple moments where it appears as if the running train is doing fabulous stunt work. The film's dramatic storyline is good, too. In the 1975 film, the group of perpetrators included a former owner of a bankrupt factory and a former member of an anti-government group. Societal injustice led them to become the criminals who risk their lives in the bombing scheme, eventually meeting their fates. Their downfall added a bitter yet impactful complexity to the story. Without giving away too much, the new film is not just rebooting the story of the original, but functions as a secret stand-alone sequel. This time, the perpetrator wishes to destroy 'the false normality,' wanting to remove the superficiality that masks daily life and reveal humankind's true nature. Protagonist Takaichi is forced to make a choice that ultimately challenges his beliefs as a railroad worker. While the original film ends after shedding light on societal divisions, the new film depicts what is necessary to heal these divisions. And it does so without making it feel like a fantasy. The sincere feeling is firmly supported by the actors' fine performances and realistic portrayals of railway workers at work. The story moves at a rapid pace, making some parts of the rescue mission difficult to follow. However, the benefit of streaming is that the film can be rewatched over and over. Having said that, I can't help wanting to watch this dynamic film on the big screen.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Bullet Train Explosion' Director on Creating the Netflix Action Thriller, Working Officially With Japan's Shinkansen
Shinji Higuchi's action thriller Bullet Train Explosion debuted on Netflix on April 23 with something of a bang, with the movie enthusiastically embraced by viewers and climbing as high as No. 2 in the streamer's global non-English films list. The movie was another win for Netflix Japan, and notably a breakout feature for the region after it had scored international and critical successes with series such as Alice in Borderland, First Love, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House and The Boyfriend. A sequel to Junya Sato's 1975 classic The Bullet Train — a film that inspired Jan de Bont's 1994 blockbuster Speed — Bullet Train Explosion updates the action to the present day and similarly sees an unseen villain claim (and also prove) that they have placed a bomb on a Tokyo-bound Shinkansen train, that is set to explode if the train drops below 100 km/h in speed. A combination of JR East train employees, passengers, as well as control tower staff and bureaucrats then attempt to figure out a plan to rescue the hundreds of train passengers and stop the train from reaching central Tokyo before it explodes. More from The Hollywood Reporter Is Europe the Last Bastion of DEI in Film and TV? A Belgian Boxer Goes to the Mat in Directors' Fortnight Entry 'Wild Foxes' (Exclusive Trailer) Tom Cruise Shuts Down Tariffs Talk at 'Mission: Impossible' Press Event: "We'd Rather Answer Questions About the Movie" On top of its lineage to The Bullet Train, Higuchi's film will have extra special resonance for Japanese audiences, as well as anyone who has visited Japan, with the central importance the Shinkansen plays in the movie. Bullet Train Explosion is notable for the production getting official backing from Japanese railway operator East Japan Railway Company, a rarity as the organisation is loath to sanction depictions of the service that may cast aspersions or associate it with unsavory issues. At Netflix's recent Asia Pacific film content showcase in Tokyo, Higuchi, as well as some of the creative team behind Bullet Train Explosion, spoke at length about the linkup with JR East and the amount of detail the production went into recreating the high level of verisimilitude in the film. Higuchi and the producers were keen to stress that Japan's legions of train afficianados would appreciate the level of work that went into the sets that recreated the carriages, the uniforms and everything else that was unimistakably a part of the experience of travelling on the JR East. Ahead of the streaming release of Bullet Train Explosion on Netflix, The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Higuchi about the film at the Tokyo showcase. The filmmaker discussed the inspirations he took from The Bullet Train, what the Shinkansen means to the Japanese people, the making of the film and some of the dos and don'ts from JR East Railway. First, I wanted to ask you what you think the Shinkansen train means to people in Japan? Why is it so important? I don't know what the Shinkansen train means for everybody in Japan, but for me on a personal level, I was born in 1965 and the first Tōkaidō Shinkansen was introduced a year before I was born. And so as a child, the Shinkansen was something that you would see in TV programs and there would be children's songs about it. It was something that everybody dreamed of, it was aspirational for us. It was the first thing that really let you experience things out of the ordinary. As I grew into an adult, I would use the Shinkansen more for getting to and from work. And so I started using it differently than compared to when I was a child. And the Shinkansen evolved too, the speed became 1.5 times faster than it was in the beginning, and it allowed you to go to all these different places. When it started, it was just one route between Osaka and Tokyo, then it expanded, and you were able to go everywhere. When that happened, it went from something out of the ordinary, to something that was part of everyday life. Then in 1975, there was the original movie, [The Bullet Train]. The poster showed the Shinkansen blowing up, but when you actually saw the movie, though, it didn't explode! Because it would be a disaster if it actually exploded, so the characters just did everything in their power to prevent the explosion from happening. [In the film] you see the police, the railway company, people doing everything they can to stop the bullet train, that was something that was very intriguing to see. [The star of The Bullet Train], Ken Takakura, is an iconic actor in Japan, he played perpetrator. This actor, who we usually saw as a hero, was now a villain, he sets a bomb on the train, and he is shot by the police at the very end. I was in fourth grade when the film came out, and until then I had only seen movies of monsters, heroes and animation. And The Sound of Music! [laughs]. So it was the first time that I saw a movie where the criminal was shot by the police. It was very shocking because I was accustomed to seeing movies with happy endings. [The film] really talked about the injustice that exists in this world, and it taught me a lesson. It was a refreshing experience, where you were able to experience the thrill of somebody actually committing a crime, and then also this real tension of seeing this beautiful Shinkansen being in this kind of situation. So the film left an emotional scar when I saw it for the first time. Regarding the themes of your film. What did you want to communicate to Japan and also to the world with the themes of the film? What I loved about is the way that it is a great action film, but also the way it celebrates the things the world loves about Japan, like working together to solve problems, keeping the trains on time, social trust. Did you have those things in mind at all? From a critical point of view, I think the Japanese people they are on a decline, compared to 50 years ago, when the original film was made. Everything has been going down, in terms of the economy. But then, if we bring you that decline as the core of this film, that's not going to make anybody happy! This time around [for Bullet Train Explosion], the characters in this film are all people that are not such great people, including, some of the passengers, they all have their faults. [There's the scandal-plagued] politician, there's the YouTuber that only thinks about money. There are a lot of these kinds of people in Japan today. And the ultimate character is the girl who has no appreciation for life and no hope at all. Those are the characters, but we made a point of not killing any of them. Then you have the JR people, the staff on the JR, these are people that seem like they are only able to do routine work. [Tsuyoshi Kusanagi's character] would have been able to save all the passengers if he was able to kill that girl, but he's not able to do that. So, it's really a question of whom the hero is, and that's the message that I wanted to convey when we were portraying the perpetrator. I think the character that Tsuyoshi Kusanagi played is very representative of the people of Japan in today's society. Actually, when we initially came up with the idea of the conductor, his background would be that he would have a family, he had children to go back home to. He would have this everyday life, and he would be stuck in this conflict between his family and his work. When we pitched that character idea to JR in the beginning, they said the scenes where [the conductor] leaves a voicemail on his smartphone or emails his family from the Shinkansen [weren't realistic] because when the JR conductor boards a Shinkansen, they do not have smartphones with them because they put them in their lockers at the station. They shut themselves off completely from the outside world and their families. From my point of view as an American, watching the film what I loved about it is that we're living in a time when all around the world, trust in institutions and civic society is breaking down. This film really celebrates people doing humble jobs with dignity — coming together to solve a problem. There's some critique of bureaucracy, but overall, people work together to solve a problem. The trains are running on time, where it feels like social services around the world are breaking down, like even Germany's trains don't run on time anymore! Do you think the world can learn from Japan a little bit at this moment and what this film says about that? And the other thing I'm curious about is what else JR said that you could and couldn't do, and what their concerns were? I don't really have an intention of pushing Japan's message to the world! I'm actually more curious to hear what people think of the film after they see it. When I first went to the airport [in the U.S.], I saw the people who were doing the body checks, and they seemed to be living an extension of their private life and everything was just very free and so that actually was very shocking to me when I first went to the U.S. And I think it really showed what kind of country that the U.S. is. I think there isn't a need for any country to be like the other. We need to learn and take the good things from one another. And they were throwing snacks! On the flight! [laughs] It makes you feel you can join in, become one of them! That would never happen on the Shinkansen! [laughs] It's a very small thing, but that's one of the things that I really appreciated when I went to the U.S., that experience. It's great. I love it. About JR and their concerns. I think, because they have so many rules, if we had kept to each and every one of their rules, everything would have been out of the question! In that sense, they really gave us that freedom to do what we wanted. But we really did stay in tune to the mindset of the employees and really thought of how they would react in these kinds of situations. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
India Today
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Bullet Train Explosion review: Spiritual sequel that combines heart and heat
Strangers board a train—different faces, different backgrounds, different priorities. For a brief moment in time, they are united by a shared goal: to reach their destination. But what happens when that journey is hijacked—literally—and every second becomes a fight for survival? Who rises? Who leads? Who becomes a hero?At first glance, this might sound like the premise of a typical hostage thriller. You may even recall 1975's The Bullet Train, the Japanese classic that inspired India's The Burning Train featuring Dharmendra, Jitendra and Vinod Khanna among others. But Bullet Train Explosion, now streaming on Netflix, is no mere remake. Directed by Shinji Higuchi (Shin Godzilla), this is a spiritual successor that reimagines the genre with restraint, humanity, and tension as sharp as a the trailer of Bullet Train Explosion here: Rather than focusing solely on the perpetrator's motive—as the original did, steeped in socio-economic despair—this iteration shifts the lens to those on board. It's a powerful, pulse-pounding tribute to Japan's everyday heroes: the railway technicians, engineers, and staff who bear the enormous responsibility of passenger safety without ever seeking the premise remains simple yet suffocating: the Hayabusa No. 60 Shinkansen has been rigged with a bomb that will detonate if its speed drops below 100 km/h. There are no martial arts showdowns la Kill, and very little action in the conventional sense. Yet the film grips you tightly, driven by the claustrophobic intensity inside the train and the relentless ticking of camera mimics the rhythm of the train itself—restless, urgent, and always moving. Long takes within tight carriages and sweeping shots of serene countryside create a haunting juxtaposition: the chaos within versus the calmness production design, executed in collaboration with the East Japan Railway Company, deserves special mention. It grounds the film in reality without ever veering into documentary territory, achieving that elusive blend of authenticity and cinematic the film's emotional core is Tsuyoshi Kusanagi as Kazuya Takaichi, a veteran Shinkansen official whose quiet dedication anchors the entire narrative. There's no bravado in his portrayal—just steadfast professionalism, silent resolve, and a deeply felt sense of duty. When disaster looms, he doesn't panic. He calculates. He leads. He cares. Kusanagi's performance is wonderfully restrained and profoundly human—every glance and exhale calibrated to communicate urgency without Toyoshima stands out as the troubled teenager Yuzuki Onodera, whose character serves as a thematic bridge to the original Bullet Train. Her arc adds emotional depth without derailing the narrative's screenplay, while occasionally meandering, quickly regains its rhythm and never loses the sense of impending doom. There's no need for bombastic monologues or overdone sentimentality—the film's emotional power comes from its subtlety. The stakes are crystal clear, and the audience feels them what creates the bumps in the smooth ride is the VFX, that needed to be better for a seamless look. It looks like animation on budget, and to be fair, it looked Train Explosion isn't just a high-speed thriller—it's a film about integrity, duty, and the resilience of ordinary people under extraordinary pressure. The tension is meticulous, the emotions are genuine, and the story honours the unsung guardians of public this one not just for the thrill, but for the quiet courage it celebrates.3.5 out of 5 stars.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Bullet Train Explosion' Sticks It to Amtrak
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Nothing infuriates me more than Amtrak. Last weekend, as I was purchasing train tickets from New York City to Philadelphia to visit my parents, the National Railroad's insane price fluctuations dropped a $144 price tag for a one-way trip down to $74 just an hour later. Add on Amtrak's frequent delays and cancellations, and you're dealing with what is essentially an unruly airline industry on rails. It absolutely drives me up the wall. So, when I heard that Netflix's new film, Bullet Train Explosion, is all about Japan's love for the Shinkansen bullet train, I just had to check it out. After all, I was feeling massive train envy from Japan. Before I hit play on Bullet Train Explosion, I finished reading a story in The New York Times about how railway workers 3D-printed a new rest area at Hatsushima station and then assembled it in just six hours. (In the U.S., passengers consider themselves lucky if there are even benches to sit on while they wait.) But even though Bullet Train Explosion seemingly promised that the exact same train I was fawning over was certain to explode, I had a hunch that the train was still the hero of this story. The first thing you'll notice about Bullet Train Explosion—aside from its kick-ass title—is that it operates a lot like Speed (1994). The plot follows a terrorist who threatens to detonate a bomb on the moving vehicle for ransom, with the caveat that it will explode if the train slows below 100 km/h (roughly 62 mph). The film is a remake of 1975's The Bullet Train, which itself inspired the 1994 action blockbuster with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. The one difference is that director Shinji Higuchi (Shin Godzilla) was allowed to film parts of Bullet Train Explosion on real JR East Shinkansen trains. Much of Bullet Train Explosion's early reviews criticized the film as nothing more than a two-hour commercial for JR East. I understand where they're coming from. (Partly.) Our hero, conductor Kazuya Takaichi (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), is head-over-heels in love with trains. In the very beginning of the film, he tells a tour group of students, 'Although each of us has our own reasons for boarding the Shinkansen, we're all heading in the same direction.' He looks up at the sky with a smile and asks, 'Isn't there something romantic about seeing all those people off?' If this was Amtrak Train Explosion, feel free to groan away. You can't charge me $144 to travel from New York City to Philadelphia and then convince me that my trip was actually kind of romantic. But this isn't Amtrak. This is the Shinkansen bullet train. It travels from Osaka to Tokyo—a little over 300 miles—in just two and a half hours at speeds reaching 200 mph. Amtrak could never! But the Shinkansen? This train fucking rules. That's why Kazuya, despite being paid a conductor's salary, would give his life to protect this train. Over the course of Bullet Train Explosion's two-hour runtime, Kazuya breaks up fights between the passengers, jumps from one uncoupled car to another, and connects a rescue car while the vehicle is still in motion like he's Dr. David Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey. He is a goddamn Superman for trains. The one department where Bullet Train Explosion ironically disappoints is that the film doesn't blow up any real trains. That's the Catch-22 of JR East's involvement in the film. If you're filming on real Shinkansen cars, you can't exactly send them flying in a pillar of fire and debris. So, Higuchi employs some shockingly terrible CGI for a film made in 2025. It's possible that the budget for Bullet Train Explosion was no more than the price for all these actors to ride the train. Still, I'd pay that price easily. There's a fair number of surprises throughout Bullet Train Explosion—even if it's quite insane that none of them are literal explosions. I can't say that it rivals 1975's Bullet Train, and especially not the thrill ride of Speed. But if Bullet Train Explosion is merely a two-hour commercial designed to highlight the Shinkansen and its dedicated crew, then Japan did a fantastic job. I dare the U.S. to create a bullet train as prepared to survive a terrorist attack as the Shinkansen. And if they would like to set that up before I need to travel from New York City to Philadelphia again, I'd very much appreciate it. You Might Also Like Kid Cudi Is All Right 16 Best Shoe Organizers For Storing and Displaying Your Kicks
Tokyo Weekender
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Tokyo Weekender
Before Keanu Reeves' Speed, There Was The Bullet Train
The 1994 Keanu Reeves action thriller Speed — the story of a bomb on a bus that will blow if the vehicle goes slower than 50 miles per hour — only exists because the screenwriter's father mixed up two movies. Long ago, writer Graham Yost was recommended the 1985 Jon Voight movie Runaway Train by his dad, who mentioned that the titular train couldn't stop because of a bomb. However, there was no bomb in the film. Yost's father was most likely confusing it with the 1975 Japanese film The Bullet Train (not to be confused with the 2022 Brad Pitt movie Bullet Train ), which is about a Shinkansen that will blow up if it slows down. Yost didn't know that, though. He only saw Runaway Train and thought that the story would have been better with a bomb in it. And thus, Speed was born… as an accidental American remake of The Bullet Train. It took over 30 years, but Japan finally decided to do something about it by releasing its own remake of Bullet Train, which premiered on Netflix on April 23 under the title Bullet Train Explosion . How does it hold up against the original? Let's take a look, without any spoilers. List of Contents: Same Story, Different Genres The Titular Bullet Train Why the Remake Is Still Totally Worth Watching Related Posts Same Story, Different Genres Bullet Train Explosion centers around a Shinkansen with a bomb on it that will explode if the train slows below 100 kilometers per hour. Seemingly just like the original (except in that one it was 80 kilometers per hour because times and trains are faster now), but both movies approach the topic differently. The original is full of social commentary and uses a trio of bombers to explore the struggles of Japan's underclass that developed in the wake of its economic boom that didn't benefit everyone. The 'bad guys' are a man whose livelihood was swallowed up by big businesses, his poor ex-employee and a radical who wants to topple an unjust system. Yes, they are risking the lives of innocents to extort money from the government, but through flashbacks and multiple scenes, we get to know them and understand their point of view, even if we don't agree with it. The remake plays it differently. The bombers aren't revealed until long past the halfway mark, and while one technically counts as a member of a demographic that is often treated unfairly and even violently, their motives are ultimately personal and selfish. They're also never really explored as much as revealed via exposition by other characters who seem to appear out of nowhere because so much of Bullet Train Explosion is focused on the train and the people inside it. Conversely, a huge part of the 1975 film is actually a police procedural taking place outside the train where officers follow clues, make deductions and just work the case. An argument could be made that Bullet Train Explosion keeps things more focused, but we have to ask ourselves what is a remake? Is it something that gives us less or more than the original? Your answer to that question may help you decide if Bullet Train Explosion is for you. Bullet Train Explosion – Production Still Image The Titular Bullet Train The Bullet Train was a nightmare to cast. According to an interview with director Junya Sato , popular actor Bunta Sugawara turned down a role because his wife read the script and concluded that the Shinkansen was the main character, not the actor. That is not true, though. As mentioned before, a lot of the story takes place outside the bullet train, which was not a purely creative choice. It was due to Japanese National Railways — the predecessor of JR — offering the movie no support: no access to trains, no details about the inner-workings of the rail system, nothing. The only reason the filmmakers knew what a Shinkansen control room looked like was because they hired a foreign actor to pose as a German engineer interested in a tour of the facility, which he filmed with a hidden camera. Once again, things were very different with the remake. JR gave Bullet Train Explosion a lot of support, including actual Shinkansen trains. It did, however, stop short of letting them blow one up for real. You would think that would work to the movie's advantage, but either because of explicit requests from the company or gratitude from the filmmakers, the remake spends a lot of time praising the hell out of the Shinkansen. When it first arrives in the movie, the music swells and the train is shot in a way that borders on the pornographic with low-angle shots and sweeps of its slender body. Also, one crew member can't shut up about how much he loves the Shinkansen and cares about his passengers. By the fifth time he mentions it, you feel like screaming 'OK, we get it, the Shinkansen is amazing, can we please get back to the movie?' And the thing is, the Shinkansen is an amazing piece of technology, but singing its praises at every turn feels like a promotion for JR that cheapens the movie. Why the Remake Is Still Totally Worth Watching For every mistake that Bullet Train Explosion makes, it gives us two fun action scenes as penance. The Bullet Train focused on human drama and action scenes that didn't require a lot of external shots of the trains because they didn't have access to them. The remake, though, took full advantage of having JR on its side, taking some of the scenes from the original and making them much more action-packed, involving fast trains and finally topping everything off with a bunch of explosions. The 1975 movie admittedly had few of those, while the remake blows up more trains than Gomez Addams. Even if you frequently travel on the Shinkansen, watching one clip other trains, get rear-ended, or blown apart is surprisingly a lot of fun because of the tone of the movie. There's a part where the remake gets weirdly dark and serious, but it's not representative of the rest of the film that, on the whole, is kind of wacky in a 'we are all aware that this is a ridiculous story and we are trying to get through this with a straight face.' In most cases, that would be a mark against an action movie, but if it helps get us creative action scenes, then we can overlook it. A bigger focus on practical effects instead of CGI would have been nice but you can't get everything, and what you do get, is a fun movie. Related Posts Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League Movie Review: A Loony Love Letter to Japanese Culture The Marketing Blitz That Helped Make the Original Godzilla a Success Japan Travel Made Easy: A Comprehensive Guide to Shinkansen and Subway Trains
