“Bullet Train Explosion” has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it? That title will hopefully be enough to pique interest, even if you haven’t already seen the original 1975 “Bullet Train,” an Irwin Allen-style disaster movie on wheels. “Bullet Train Explosion” is being advertised as a remake of that earlier movie, and while that pitch both is and isn’t accurate, this new movie does explicitly call back to that earlier one. Don’t panic: there won’t be a quiz, and your knowledge (or memory) of that earlier “Bullet Train” won’t be tested.
Instead, what makes “Bullet Train Explosion” so charming is that its creators don’t try to reinvent their chosen genre with this oversized, defiantly corny throwback. They deliver what you might expect from a Japanese ensemble drama about a group of strangers and railway professionals who band together to stop a fast-moving train from blowing up.
With “Bullet Train Explosion,” you get a straight-down-the-line crowdpleaser, replete with duty-bound authority figures in well-pressed uniforms, anxious and often self-absorbed passengers, Macgyver-like problem-solving, seat-of-your-pants close calls, that sort of thing. There are no real surprises here, just what you’d want from this sort of cheeseball entertainment.
Maybe it helps to know that “Bullet Train Explosion” was directed by Shinji Higuchi, the co-director of “Shin Godzilla” as well as the solo director of “Shin Ultraman,” two live-action “Attack on Titan” movies, a trilogy of beloved Gamera pictures from the 1990s, and oh yeah, the 2006 update of “Japan Sinks,” another nationalist-friendly spectacular built on the back of an earlier 1970s movie. It might help, but only if you’re the sort of person who’s presold on the project. Everyone else should know that Higuchi excels at this type of effects-heavy ensemble drama, stocked with enough simple characterizations and situational peril to launch its over-cooked drama into its own pleasurably pulpy context.
Higuchi and the gang begin by introducing us to various characters who are either on board or in the control room watching over the Shinkansen (or bullet) train, Hayabusa No. 60, from Shin-Aomori to Tokyo. A credible bomb threat has been called into the East Japan Railway Company: the train will go boom if it goes slower than 100km/h. The bomber has also asked for a 10 billion yen ransom for the lives of everyone aboard.
Everybody has an opinion about how to fix the situation, and without spoiling much, I’ll note that there’s some hand-wringing about how Japan doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. Maybe that tells you some things about this type of movie, where people must set aside their self-interest and preconceptions, and follow leaders like the stoic train conductor Kazuya Takaichi (“Japan Sinks” star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), diligent train driver Ninomiya Matsumoto (Chika Matsumoto), and stalwart assistant conductor Keiji Fujii (Kanata Hosoda).
There are high schoolers, politicians, and media personalities involved, too, but the most compelling scenes in “Bullet Train Explosion” predictably concern high-wire rescue efforts, where trained professionals plan and then actually do the things that exemplify the movie’s arch utilitarian spirit.
Who knows what needs doing in the middle of a crisis? Who’s responsible and who decides in the middle of it, and what does that resolution mean for future dilemmas? There’s a legacy element to the movie’s plot, as you might expect given its nature as a remake, and that requires the movie to make a big melodramatic gear-shift. Thankfully, Higuchi is the right guy for the job, and it shows in the way he keeps everything together, even during the most momentum-stalling plot digressions.
You need a director like Higuchi to make a movie like “Bullet Train Explosion” since he’s the rare model train maximalist who can stick the movie’s big post-climax payoff, in which the bomber’s grim worldview is firmly in check. Before then, the film works through a checklist of stock personalities, including teens with uncomprehending (and ultimately reviled) parents, useless politicians, and attention-seeking new media personalities. These characters resemble a well-recycled potpourri of pet issues from contemporary Japanese pop cinema, albeit one whose component parts have been in the spotlight since at least the first “Bullet Train” came out.
Thankfully, you can tell that the movie’s working, given that one of its most tense scenes follows personnel in the railway company’s control room as they use model trains to demonstrate their rescue plan. Higuchi shines here and throughout “Bullet Train Explosion,” a boy’s fantasy that was realized with enough vigor and dexterity to make essential track changes seem consequential and vital to its tonal and pacing change-ups. Trust that you’re in good hands with Higuchi and his crew, and they’ll get you to your destination.
