Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed railway system couldn’t ask for a better promotional video than this film’s opening sequence.
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| Having already overcome several unexpected predicaments, Conductor Takaichi (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, center), politician Yuko Kagami (Michiko Ono) and her secretary, Kodai Hayashi (Daisuke Kuroda), contemplate their next move. |
Following this demonstration, the students pile into 5060B’s many luxurious passenger cars, alongside scores of other commuters and travelers of all ages. The train pulls out of the station, driven by the perky Chika Matsumoto (Non) and supervised — in the Shinkansen Operation Control Center — by general manager Yuichi Kasagi (Takumi Saitoh).
Shortly after departure, an anonymous caller — with voice electronically concealed — informs the control center that a bomb has been placed on 5060B, which will explode if the train slows below 100 km/hour.
By way of proving this isn’t a hoax, the caller alerts the center to the impending destruction of a freight train at a station in Aomori-Higashi. It blows up on cue, after slowing below 5 km/hour. The threat duly established, the bomber calls again and demands a ransom of 100 billion yen in exchange for the means of defusing the bomb on 5060B.
If this scenario sounds familiar, that’s no accident. This film actually is a long-gestating sequel to 1975’s Shinkansen Daibakuha (The Bullet Train), a thriller concept which then producer Toei Company — and director Junya Sato — felt would prove as popular as recent high-profile American disaster films such as Earthquake and The Towering Inferno. Sato’s big-screen hit, in turn, inspired the 1994 American film Speed.
This new film — helmed by Shinji Higuchi and scripted by Kazuhiro Nakagawa and Norichika Ôba — is an impressively polished production, highlighted by persuasive special effects, an engaging cast, and sharp cinematography (Yusuke Ichitsubo and Keizô Suzuki). That said, the often laughably overblown melodramatic touches undercut the tension that Higuchi and editors Atsuki Satô and Kaori Umewaki work hard to establish and maintain.
That’s an uphill challenge, because this film doesn’t earn its 134-minute length.
American viewers also are likely to be overwhelmed by the initial information dump, with several dozen key characters introduced within the first 20 minutes. Ultimately, these prove the most important:
• Conductor Takaichi; his overly emotional young assistant, Keiji Fujii (Kanata Hosoda); and Matsumoto, grimly holding the train’s speed to 120 km/hour;
• Shinkansen General Manager Yoshimura, who oversees the evolving crisis with Kasagi; and
• Veteran Inspector Yoshiharu Kawagoe (Kenji Iwaya), who coordinates the police response.
With respect to passengers, pay attention to:
• Mitsuri Todoroki (Jun Kaname), an arrogant, self-described “unemployed millionaire” and loud-mouthed social media influencer;
• Yuko Kagami (Machiko Ono), a scandal-plagued politician dubbed the “Sugar Mama,” and her assistant, Kodai Hayashi (Daisuke Kuroda);
• Masayoshi Goto (Satoro Matsuo), a silent, masked man clearly trying to remain anonymous;
• Yuzuki Onodera (Hana Toyoshima), the quietest of the many students, often overwhelmed by her noisier companions, along with her group’s teacher, Miss Ichikawa (Suzuka Ohgo), who struggles to control all of her students; and
• Keizo Shinohara (Naomasa Musaka), a retired electrician who ... proves useful.
The tension heightens with the arrival of Kentaro Sasaki (Kentaro Tamura) and Shigeru Suwa (Yajürō Bandō) — the senior advisor to the Prime Minister, and chief cabinet secretary — who insist that the government refuses to negotiate with terrorists. Both are insufferable and ludicrously overblown.
The control center folks dither over whether to inform 5060B’s passengers of the crisis, but (of course) that doesn’t last long, plunging everybody onboard into full-blown panic. Todoroki streams himself and undercuts the government’s refusal to negotiate, by setting up an online platform to raise the ransom money.
Meanwhile, all other trains are being re-routed, to allow 5060B unimpeded access to its Tokyo station destination, but (of course!) something also will go wrong with that plan.
To his credit, Kusanagi holds the film together (no small feat). Takaichi remains calm in the face of every fresh hiccup, occasionally pausing to remind Fujii of the need for decorum and a steady composure.
The unruffled Takaichi is a breath of fresh air, when surrounded at times by people screaming at each other (to the point of sounding like cartoon characters).
Ono’s savvy Kagami sees this crisis as an opportunity to put the scandal behind her, by stepping up and demonstrating a brave government response. Kaname makes Todoroki the ultimate, self-absorbed jerk ... and just what is going on with the withdrawn Goto?
On the ground, as Inspector Kawagoe’s investigation proceeds, Nakagawa and Ôba’s script cleverly interpolates several details and characters from this film’s 1975 predecessor (a neat trick, half a century later!).
Although Higuchi and his writers try hard to build suspense, their film actually is more interesting from the standpoint of “working the problem,” as each fresh setback emerges (and there are several). The tech credits are excellent, and it’s often difficult to distinguish interior and exterior sequences involving an actual bullet train, and those sweetened by Atsuki Sato’s massive visual effects team.
Alas, the third act’s emotional impact is undercut by the length of time required to get there. Higuchi’s film needed more of the awesome momentum achieved by bullet trains running at their peak speed of 320 km/hour.
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