If you¡¯ve lived in Japan, visited or just spend unhealthy amounts of time on Instagram, it doesn¡¯t take long to realize that something about ¡°Bullet Train¡± is a bit off. David Leitch¡¯s garish, hyper-violent comedy follows Brad Pitt and a bevy of contract killers on a high-speed shinkansen journey from Tokyo to Kyoto. Only it doesn¡¯t seem to be happening in Japan at all.
Stick around for the end credits and you can catch the movie¡¯s big reveal: It was actually filmed on a Sony backlot in California. Produced at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, ¡°Bullet Train¡± never even got a chance to alight in the country where it¡¯s supposed to take place.
Instead, the movie¡¯s art department concocted an ersatz, knock-off version, using the odd composite image of Tokyo and Kyoto but otherwise working with a free ¡ª and sometimes sloppy ¡ª hand. The production employed the same immersive LED wall technology used on the sci-fi series ¡°The Mandalorian,¡± which feels appropriate: These are both fantasies.
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