Rating: C
Dir: Shinji Higuchi
Star: Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Kanata Hosoda, Non, Takumi Saitoh
A bomb on public transit that will explode if the vehicle goes below a certain… speed? We’ve seen this before. But, wait. For the truth is, this is a sequel to a far earlier Japanese film with the same premise – one which greatly predates Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock on a bus. Its predecessor was fifty years ago, The Bullet Train from 1975. In it, Sonny Chiba played the conductor on a high-speed train, where a velocity-dependent explosive device was placed, as part of a plot to extort money from the government. This has a similar premise, though the initial extortion plot ends up a red herring, and there is a connection to (and footage from) the previous incident.
One significant difference is, the original movie was made without the co-operation of the train company. Forbidden access to the system’s control room, the makers had a foreign actor pretend to be a German engineer, and secretly film inside it so they could build a replica. No such subterfuge needed here – and it shows, in a portrayal of the service provider and its employees which borders on the saintly. Conductor Kazuya Takaichi (Kusanagi) is brave, honourable and never seems to stop apologizing to the customers, for the inconvenience caused by this unforeseen delay to their journey. Had this happened on British Rail, a sullen declaration over the PA, likely preceded by a weary sigh, would have been the extent of staff involvement.
These cultural differences might be the best thing this has to offer. For example, once the terrorist is revealed, they are still deemed worth saving. In the US, they’d have been shot immediately, and the film would have been 45 minutes shorter. Mind you, that would also have required the US to have passenger trains these days, and everyone knows they don’t exist. But we may reach peak Japan when a plan is hatched to divert the train into another set of tracks. “I’ll handle the permit,” says one of the control room drones. Because, despite the emergency situation and lives being on the line, the proper procedures must continue to be followed. There are forms to be filled in, goddammit, or civilization will collapse.
It is all a bit bland, definitely feeling like a throwback to disaster movies of the seventies. The passengers are the usual buffet of tropes, from a disgraced politician through to a sullen teenager, although – perhaps due to the train company involvement – the number of on-board fatalities is remarkably small. There are some minor nods to the modern era, in the shape of an attempt to crowdfund the demanded ransom. However, it’s mostly straightforward in its structure: problem, reaction, solution, repeat, and at two and a quarter hours, this means a lot of “repeat”. The visual FX are solid enough, and it passed muster for a Sunday afternoon. I just didn’t feel the expected transport dread. There’s no sense of “Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the platform” here.