The high-speed bullet train says Japan as much as Godzilla, sushi and Mount Fuji. And it takes centre stage in Shinji Higuchi’s new film Bullet Train Explosion, which premiered on Netflix this week.
Higuchi, the director of the 2016 film Shin Godzilla, has reimagined the 1975 Japanese film The Bullet Train, which has the same premise: a bomb will go off if the train slows to below 100km/h (62mph).
That 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 to many Japanese, the Shinkansen – as the trains are called in Japan – symbolise the nation’s efforts to become “top-rate”, superfast, precise, orderly and on time.
“It’s so characteristically Japanese,” Higuchi says. “To complete your work, even if it means sacrificing your personal life, is like a samurai spirit living within all Japanese.”