The Bullet Train Explosion

Shin Godzilla co-director Shinji Higuchi returns with The Bullet Train Explosion, a streaming update of a 70s thriller (Junya Sato's The Bullet Train, starring Ken Takakura and Sonny Chiba, glimpsed here in expositionary flashbacks that transmit a hand-held, live wire energy) that goes out of its way to foreground human decency and professionalism rather than the tense bloodletting that audiences might otherwise expect. Although lacking the satirical bite of his and Hideaki Anno's task force-packed pass at The King of Monsters, Higuchi's Bullet Train is similarly concerned with detailing how expert collective action, as well as unexpected bureaucratic hurdles, can be entertaining (if impersonal) solutions to the action movie premise of a bomb having been strapped to a high-speed train. So, while Tsuyoshi Kusanagi may be front-and-centre on Netflix's ads, his train manager isn't detailed or decoded in any way other than an unfailing dedication to his job: he's in charge of delivering these commuters safely to their destination. 

The passengers trapped on this snaking Shinkansen do cater to archetypal disaster movie roles as well - imperiled children, disgraced politicians or a crowd funded spin on a boastful business magnate - but any greater investigation into their background rests on how crucial they are to the placing of an explosive speedometer on the Hayabusa 60's undercarriage. Actress-model Non, playing the train's driver, is outright underutilised though. Despite an obvious ability to imbue a dry demonstration of cockpit management with a genuine charm that speaks to the drilled-in determination required to keep this train rolling, Non's Matsumoto never leaves her cab. This deliberate lack of specific, personal focus, coupled with a tonal approach that ensures that nearly every character behaves as if they are taking part in an extended job interview, does mean that the sheer length of this two and a quarter hour journey is felt whenever one of the train's clanking carriages is not shaking itself apart. Higuchi and his cinematographers, Yusuke Ichitsubo and Keizo Suzuki, do compensate for any lulls with perspectives that always prioritise the physical machinery of any rescue attempts being made and, when any compartment is given cause to detonate, the audience is treated to blossoming computer-generated fireballs and vintage tokusatsu sound effects.