The Bullet Train

Best known for inspiring (emphasis on inspiring, not remaking!) the 1994 Keanu Reeves Hollywood Blockbuster ‘Speed’, director Junya Sato’s 1975 vehicle is a no holds barred and cleverly constructed thrill ride from beginning to end, running through a whopping two-and-a-half hours! When a psychopath plants an explosive device on the Hikari 109, a first generation high-speed bullet train carrying 1,500 passengers, transit chief Kuromochi needs to keep more than just his cool while juggling the demands of the bomber and his bosses!

The dastardly plan involves three men, with Tetsuo Okita (Ken Takakura) being the puppet master and also the eldest – a former businessman whose manufacturing company went into liquidation and whose wife divorced him, taking custody of their young son. Then there’s Masaru Koga (Kei Yamamoto), a hothead and political activist who already has had many brushes with the law and finally Hiroshi Oshiro (Akira Oda), a young man who has never had much luck in life and who, by coincidence, ended up an employee of Okita before his business went bust. Now they have concocted a devilish plan to extort $5 million dollars from the Japanese government and shortly after the Hikari 109 bullet train departs Tokyo station, Okita phones railway security head Miyashita (Fumio Watanabe) and informs him that a bomb has been planted on said train. If it slows down below 80 km per hour (that’s roughly 49 miles for you island dwellers) then the train will blow up and the passengers with it. if this were British Rail they’d all be dead within five minutes! Initially sceptical, Okita loses no time in proving to Miyashita that this no joke… because a second bomb has been planted on a freight train and its two conductors just about manage to jump off the train before it slows down heading towards a station before exploding.

Panic-stricken, Miyashito informs Shinkansen transit chief Kuromichi (Ken Utsui) of the situation, who in turn informs Hikari 109’s conductor Aoki (Shinichi Chiba) of the situation… and it’s not a pretty one, for Aoki also begins to panic (can you blame him), seeing how the journey to Hakata (over ten hours long) demands the train will stop at various stations in between, only that this is not possible. At first it is agreed not to make any announcement and therefore ensuring that the passengers don’t get an inkling, but when security personnel aboard the train check each carriage for the bomb, some of the passengers become suspicious. The suspicion then intensifies when the train thunders through a station without stopping… and Aoki, who bemoans the fact that the good old times of the locomotive are gone, can’t decide whether to make the threaded announcement or not, after all, for how much longer can the train personnel pretend that all is ok when it isn’t?

Meanwhile, Okita calls Kuromichi with precise instructions regarding the handing-over of the ransom and Koga and Hiroshi play their parts too. Of course, the police have their own ideas and at first don’t agree with Kuromichi insisting that the Government will have to cough up the money for the simple reason that the train company does not have $5 million at its disposal. When the moment of the handover arrives it goes without saying that nothing goes to plan, and it’s the fault of the police. While Kuromichi comes to realise that he and his team cannot rely on the police, Okita comes to realise that he too has to change course if he’s to receive the ransom. To make matters worse, a young woman aboard the train has gone into premature labour due to the panic aboard (by now the passengers have come to realise exactly what’s going on) but the train is unable stop getting the woman to a hospital.Soon, there are twists at almost every turn as the increasingly complex saga slowly spins out of control, further complicated by the fact that special units simply cannot detect where the bomb is hidden, despite the use of all sorts of high-tech gadgets.

Director Sato, who also co-scripted, and fellow scriptwriter Ryunosuke Ono were clever enough to incorporate various flashback sequences which provide the backstory with regards to the friendship between Okita, Koga and Hiroshi. Later, there’s another flashback sequence which depicts the collapse of Okita’s marriage, one of the reasons for his plan.
To give any more of the plot away would be sinful, so let’s just say that the final twenty or so minutes will have you on the edge of your seat – that’s a promise!
Ken Takakura, Ken Utsaui, Shinichi Chiba and Fumio Watanabe in particular are top notch. Upon its initial release in Japan, THE BULLET TRAIN was a huge success and deservedly so. However, the version destined for international distribution was cut down to a mere 90 minutes and that’s almost unforgivable as vital subplots had to be removed.

Thanks to Eureka, THE BULLET TRAIN can now be enjoyed in its full length, and in 2K restored Blu-ray format! Plus, the first print run (2000 copies) are presented in a Limited Edition O-card slipcase with a Collector’s booklet thrown in. Other Bonus Material includes optional theatrical Japanese and alternate dubbed international versions, audio options, audio commentaries and interviews including an archive interview with director Junya Sato.