A new Netflix film features a hurtling Japanese bullet train with a ticking bomb
Higuchi, the director of the 2016 "Shin Godzilla" (or "New Godzilla,") has reimagined the 1975 Japanese film "The Bullet Train," which has the same premise: A bomb will go off if the train slows down below 100 kph (62 mph.) That original movie also inspired Hollywood's "Speed," starring Keanu Reeves, which takes place mostly on a bus.
Higuchi recalls being fascinated by the aerodynamically shaped bullet trains growing up as they roared by, almost like a violent animal. To him, as with many Japanese, the Shinkansen -- as the trains are called in Japan -- symbolize the nation's efforts to become "top-rate," superfast, precise, orderly and on time.
"It's so characteristically Japanese," Higuchi said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. "To complete your work, even if it means sacrificing your personal life, is like a samurai spirit living within all Japanese."
The film's realism was achieved by a smooth combination of computer graphics and miniature train models, built to one-sixth the size of the real thing.
A huge LED wall was used on the set to project visuals of passing landscapes as seen from the train window, and those shots were juxtaposed seamlessly with footage shot on a real train.
The explosions are strangely exhilarating, and beautifully depicted with scattering sparks and smoke.
Higuchi stressed that the filmmakers were careful to make sure the criminal act, as depicted, is not physically possible today.
He said "Bullet Train Explosion" marked a challenging departure from his past movies that were about heroes and monsters.
"I examined the question of evil, and how we pass judgment on a person," he said.
"That's what my predecessors did as directors before me: Try to show what happens if you commit evil," he added. "And I tried to give my answer."
One departure from the original, which starred the late Ken Takakura as the bomber, is that Higuchi chose to focus on the train workers.
Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, formerly a member of boys' band Smap who portrayed a transgender woman in Eiji Uchida's "Midnight Swan," is convincing as a dedicated Shinkansen worker.
"I always have fun working with the director," Kusanagi said of Higuchi at a Tokyo premiere earlier this week. "I've loved him for 20 years."
Kusanagi starred in "Sinking of Japan," Higuchi's 2006 science-fiction thriller about a natural catastrophe that threatens Japan's very existence.
East Japan Railway Co., formed after the national railway was privatized, which operates the bullet train featured in Higuchi's reboot, gave full support to the film. It allowed the use of real trains, railway facilities and uniforms, as well as helping train the actors to simulate its workers and their mannerisms.
The bullet trains have long been a symbol of Japan's blossoming as a modern economy and peaceful culture in the decades following World War II.
The first leg, connecting Tokyo with Osaka, opened with much fanfare in 1964. The system now connects much of Japan, from the northernmost main island of Hokkaido through southwestern Kyushu. The train featured in Higuchi's work connects Tokyo with northern Aomori.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
2 hours ago
'Moonlight Mask' and the Birth of the TV/Manga Media Mix
In February 1958, just five years after television broadcast began in Japan, the television series Gekkō Kamen , known in English as Moonlight Mask , hit screens. The titular hero hid his face with a white mask and sunglasses as he raced through the streets on a motorcycle with cape fluttering behind. The Moonlight Mask's slogan as he fought injustice was, 'Hate not, harm not, forgive all.' The character overall was something of a 'Japanese superman,' with additional influence from historical novels. The series premiered on Radio Tokyo Television (KRT, now operating as TBS), running for 10 minutes six days a week, Monday to Saturday, from 6:00 pm. When the clock struck six, children would vanish from Japan's playgrounds and streets, gathering at home or at friends' places to sit in front of the small screen. Gekkō Kamen merchandise was also a hit. Children would tie towels around their necks as makeshift capes, decorate their bicycles like the hero's motorbike, and spin toy pistols on their fingers. Kawauchi Kōhan, who went on to earn fame as a songwriter in later years, wrote the scripts. Most of the production staff were beginners, and even the director, Funatoko Sadao, was on his first series. Still, the show as a huge hit, earning a record 60.7% viewership. It ran until July of 1959, bouncing between various time slots. The first adaptation for the big screen, which was considered the king of popular entertainment at the time, came out in 1958. Star Ōmura Fumitake took the lead role in a total of six films rushed out by the end of 1959. Another Hit in Manga Catching that wave of popularity, monthly kid's magazine Shōnen Club soon began serializing a manga version. The artist was new star Kuwata Jirō, who had drawn a hit for a rival magazine. Serialization started about three months after the broadcast kicked off. The editor who had spotted the program's potential was right on the money, and the comic helped Shōnen Club skyrocket. The series was also a success in paperback, a relative rarity at the time. A paperback version of the Gekkō Kamen manga. (© ) As the battle over readership grew more frenzied, rival magazines began to appear, and many even began to copy the TV-to-manga adaptation formula. Other television channels also saw Gekkō Kamen 's success and began producing their own programming for children, so both TV and children's magazines joined in on the battle royale of tie-ins. For example, around 1960 both NTV's Yūsei Ōji (Planet Prince) and Fuji TV's Kaiteijin 8823 (Submariner 8823, or 'Hayabusa,' using a goroawase pronunciation of the numbers) were adapted in Kōbunsha's Shōnen magazine, while NET (now TV Asahi) series Nanairo Kamen (Seven Color Mask) and National Kid became manga serials in the Kōdansha magazine Bokura . Analysts say that such adaptations helped double circulation for Bokura . A Virtuous Cycle for Two New Media There were connections between manga and other media before World War II. The Takarazuka theater troupe adapted the serial manga Shōchan no Bōken (Shō's Adventure) from the photo magazine Asahigraph into a stage play in 1924. Tōa Kinema then adapted it for the silver screen. After the war, Yamakawa Sōji's Shōnen Ōja (Young Men's Champion) went from a street-side kamishibai —a kind of 'picture play' storytelling popular with children of the day—to a Shūeisha paperback manga bestseller. However, Gekkō Kamen was the first example of a manga publisher tying up with another media form for the express goal of building readership, to great success. It showed that there was now a chance for two new forms of media to create synergy and boost each others' growth. At the time, children's monthly magazines were in a constant cycle of fresh launches and renewal, and competition grew ever fiercer. Shōnen Club , which had grown with Gekkō Kamen , had started out before the war as Shōnen Kurabu (written in kanji), renaming itself in 1946. That same year was when Kōbunsha founded Shōnen and Gakudōsha started Manga Shōnen . In 1948, Meimeisha's Bōken Katsugeki Bunko , which later became Shōnen Gahō , joined them, and in 1949 Shōnen Shōjo Bōken Ō and Omoshirobukku appeared on bookshelves. Girls' magazines also appeared, with Shōjo Bukku (now Ribbon ) coming in 1951, and Nakayoshi starting in 1955. It was a free-for-all. Children's magazines battled it out over reader numbers by adapting television series into manga. (© Nakano Haruyuki) All the magazines centered on short stories, nonfiction articles, and photo features of movie and sports starts, with manga relegated to a supporting role. A September 1955 manga journal report states that manga only accounted for about 20% of the content in magazines targeting children. That truth is, though, that publishers often attached separate booklets, around 36 pages long, of manga to their magazines. Public opinion held that manga was of lower status than narrative fiction or photo layouts, with some considering the style mere 'kid's stuff.' It proved enormously popular, though, and soon became an essential weapon in the industry's sales battles. A selection of manga booklets that came attached to children's magazines. (Courtesy Nakano Haruyuki) Television was also seeing a huge jump in growth. When broadcasts began in 1953, there were only 866 reception contracts with NHK. Most people watched TV through the sets put out in public locations, like those on streets in front of train stations. Two years later, when KRT began operations, NHK contracts numbered 100,000. The next year, in 1956, stations opened up in Osaka and Nagoya, kicking off a nationwide TV rush. NHK contracts surpassed 1 million in 1958, and construction on Tokyo Tower, the nation's largest broadcast antenna, was finished. The presence of television sets soon dominated home living rooms. Even so, TV was often derided as 'electric kamishibai ' and considered of low cultural impact. The country's five largest film companies signed an agreement to limit the broadcast of old productions and appearances by actors with exclusive contacts. This is also when the flow of adaptation from manga to TV took off. In 1957, the hugely popular historical fiction manga Akadō Suzunosuke was adapted into a radio play, and then into a live broadcast series by both KRT and Osaka TV. KRT televised Maboroshi Tantei (The Phantom Detective), a manga by the same artist who drew the Gekkō Kamen comics, in 1959. Fuji TV made a series out of Shōnen Jet (The Jet Boy), a detective manga by Takeuchi Tsunayoshi, the artist behind Akadō Suzunosuke . These television adaptations also helped raise public interest in manga. Synergistic Growth The coincidental overlap between manga's sudden rise in popularity with television's appearance very likely led to rapid development for both. Both new media forms made full use of their unique visual formats, and shared an ability to be enjoyed at home. Another shared point is that despite their massive popularity, they were widely perceived as lowbrow culture. Manga earned fans by using its position in children's magazines, or as attachments to them, to both offer adaptations of television content and to offer content for adaptation on television. Televisions appeared rapidly in Japanese homes in the 1950s. (© Pixta) Today, nearly 70 years since Gekkō Kamen appeared, manga enjoys a nearly unparalleled position as a content generator, and it is not at all unusual to see it as a source for TV and movie stories. However, the road from its beginnings in children's magazines to becoming a fundamental part of the television media mix through anime was a long one. (Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: Gekkō Kamen, the grandfather of all Japanese TV heroes, with young fans. He went on to become a manga star, as well. Taken in 1958 at a Tokyo studio. © Kyōdō.)
8 hours ago
Ishiba Calls on People to Think about Future at Osaka Expo
Osaka, July 3 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called on people to think about the future, in a speech at a Japan Day ceremony at the World Exposition in the western city of Osaka on Thursday. "I hope that this day will be a day (for people) to think about the future in which they will walk together with Japan and the path to that hope," said Ishiba, honorary chairperson of the Expo. Crown Prince Akishino, honorary president of the Expo, said in a speech, "I want people who will lead the next generation to experience encounters with people and cultures around the world and deepen their thinking about the world and the future." Following the ceremony, creative performances blending various Japanese cultures, including "gagaku" ceremonial court music and manga, were held. A parade joined by characters such as Sanrio Co.'s Hello Kitty and Kumamoto Prefecture's Kumamon took place under the Grand Ring, the huge wooden structure that is a symbol of the Expo. About 8.9 million people had visited the Expo as of Wednesday since its April 13 opening, according to its organizer, the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Japan Today
9 hours ago
- Japan Today
High-risk, low-return YouTuber explores world's red light districts
"I'm on YouTube because I want the people who watch my videos to think, they learned about an unfamiliar world. I'm not obsessed with making money from videos that I myself don't find interesting." So says "Muteki (Invincible) Leo," the handle of 28-year-old Japanese YouTuber who has made a name for himself by traveling around the world and posting videos about the local sex industry and dangerous places he visits. Many of his videos have obtained millions of hits. "Before I became a YouTuber, I had hardly ever traveled," Leo admits to Bunshun Online (June 29). Born and raised in rural Gifu Prefecture, Leo recalls that the nearest station to his house was practically unmanned, with only two trains per hour, and located about a 30-minute walk from his house. "In the countryside there was almost no entertainment," he said. "So I spent my middle and high school years watching YouTube all the time, particularly travel videos. In that sense, YouTube sort of offered me a small ray hope to escape my mundane existence." His first trip abroad, while a university sophomore, was to India. "From the moment we arrived, I was shocked at how different everything was from Japan," he recalls. "There were crowds of people, the air was polluted, and there were a lot of pickpockets and con artists. The buses and trains didn't run on time, so my plans were constantly messed up. On top of that, I suffered serious gastrointestinal problems for most of the trip. Still, I found it exciting." After graduating from university, Leo moved to Tokyo and worked in sales at an IT company, and then moved to a startup business where he worked as a writer and video editor. "Then the COVID pandemic hit and for a while I couldn't even travel domestically, let alone overseas. Eventually I traveled to Thailand, and posted my first video on YouTube." Back in India again, Leo visited "GB Road" the red-light district of New Delhi, and that was where he got the scare his life. "Even the locals warn you not to go there," he remarked. "But at the time, I had little travel experience, so I completely underestimated it, thinking, 'Even if it's dangerous, it's only pickpockets and rip-offs.' "As soon as I stepped into the district, hands reached out from all over and pulled my clothes. I suppose they were trying to drag me into a shop. I should have turned back then, but I gave in to curiosity and entered a shop. Then I heard the door slam shut and the lock click. "In a tiny room, mostly occupied by a bed, an extremely large man and an extremely small man were waiting for me, resembling the Toguro brothers demon team from the manga 'YuYu Hakusho.' The big guy was stomping around the room, ranting at me in what sounded like Hindi, and I thought, 'Oh god, maybe I'm done for.'" One of Leo's more memorable encounters was at a house in Bangkok, where a woman told him, "We're not selling our bodies. We're buying the future of our families." "The weight of those words was something I couldn't fully comprehend, as I had been living a safe and secure life in Japan, and it got me to thinking," he said. "I was also impressed by a young Hungarian woman I met at FKK, a mixed-gender sauna in Germany where you bathe naked. She was incredibly intelligent, and could speak five languages. She told me, 'I want to work for an international organization in the future, so I came to Germany, where the salary is better than in Hungary, to earn money for tuition.' Then I asked her, 'Don't you feel embarrassed to be seen naked by a man you don't know?' and she replied, 'What's embarrassing is giving up on your dreams.' That reply left me speechless." Leo's video of his visit to Greece received nearly 10 million unique views but earned him little money. "That video showed too much about the local sex industry, which may have been in violation of the guidelines, so it received almost no ads," he reflects, adding "YouTube determines compensation based on the number of ad views in the video, and it was hardly monetized. "But I post on YouTube because I want the people who watch my videos to think, 'I learned something about a world I didn't know.' That's why I feel it's wrong to miss experiencing things. I'm not obsessed with remuneration and don't make videos that I myself don't find interesting. "Every country has its own values and systems surrounding sex, which reveal the true face of that country," said Leo. "In other words, I think you can learn about a country's real culture and values through its sex industry." Winding up, the interviewer asked Leo about the first thing he does when he returns to Japan. "As soon as I arrive at the airport, I head for a restroom," he smiled. "Japanese heated toilet seats are the best. They are almost never available overseas, even in high-end hotels. For someone like me who gets sick often, this can be a matter of life and death. With just paper, you always end up feeling a little tired. It's a simple thing, but it's mentally taxing to endure that kind of discomfort day after day." © Japan Today
