In an age of perpetual crisis, disaster movies have started to feel like a form of escapism. Sure, they depict things going horribly wrong, but they also offer hope that people might manage to overcome adversity.
There¡¯s barely a moment during Shinji Higuchi¡¯s ¡°Bullet Train Explosion¡± when you¡¯ll have reason to doubt that engineering and teamwork will ultimately save the day. Netflix¡¯s most lavish Japanese movie to date is fast and frictionless entertainment with a reassuring message that come what may, we¡¯re all in safe hands.
It¡¯s a reboot of Junya Sato¡¯s ¡°The Bullet Train¡± (1975), a classic Japanese disaster movie that sought to emulate the success of John Guillermin¡¯s ¡°The Towering Inferno¡± the previous year. As in the original, a bullet train is held to ransom with a bomb that¡¯s wired to blow if the speed drops below a certain amount ¡ª though this time it¡¯s a Hayabusa shinkansen hurtling from Shin-Aomori toward Tokyo, and the mandatory velocity has been raised to 100 kph.
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