HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Bullet Train, The Speed Version 1.0
Year: 1975
Director: Jun'ya Satô
Stars: Ken Takakura, Sonny Chiba, Kei Yamamoto, Eiji Gô, Akira Oda, Raita Ryû, Masayo Utsunomiya, Yumiko Fujita, Yumi Takigawa, Etsuko Shihomi, Fumio Watanabe, Toyoto Fukuda, Hiroko Fuji, Takashi Shimura
Genre: Action, ThrillerBuy from Amazon
Rating:  5 (from 1 vote)
Review: The Shinkansen "Bullet Train" of Japan is one of the country's most celebrated transport systems, but what if the unthinkable happened and something went wrong with the network? Safety procedures have been stringent, but the human element is not able to be completely ruled out - that being the deliberate intervention by a saboteur, such as failed businessman Tetsuo Otika (Ken Takakura). He is trying to get a ransom paid - if the authorities do not hand him over a huge amount in cash, a bomb will be set off on one of the trains...

If the seventies were about anything in the major movies, they were about worst case scenarios, and the most visible of those in the first half of the decade at least was the disaster genre. In Hollywood, the notion that this brave new world of high technology could be fatally flawed (literally) was the engine behind many of the biggest hits as the major studios had the money to spend on catastrophes which the outfits lower down the financial scale were rarely able to keep up with. However, Japanese efforts had been inflicting massive destruction on audiences for years, so by the time Bullet Train was released it did seem a little old hat.

Especially as the set up of the train with the bomb on board came across as small fry compared to what Japan had had to put up with over the course of countless fictional armageddons, and it was only the high profile nature of the setting that provided much novelty. It did have a killer concept which was implemented with some variation by a certain action phenomenon called Speed in 1994, that being the explosive device will be detonated if the vehicle its strapped to goes under a particular velocity. In the Keanu Reeves epic, that was fifty miles an hour, here the train goes off the rails if it travels below eighty kilometres an hour.

So the scene should be set for nailbiting tension, or so you would think, but considering this should have been preoccupied with objects and people moving very fast, it didn't half plod. In its original version it stretched out to a ridiculous two and a half hours, and to take it to that length there were a few subplots to contend with, the main one being the fate of Otika and how he was not someone to be feared, more a man to be pitied. In light of his placing so many passengers in peril, you might have had a spot of bother working up much sympathy for him, but the script did its best to portray him as a victim of society.

That cynicism might have come off in other methods, but here it was rather tiresome, especially as every character was drawn from stock and failed to add much of a spark, explosive or otherwise. The drama was doled out between the cops tracking Otika, the control room where the officials sweated it out, and the train itself, led by driver Sonny Chiba who conducted nervous conversations over the phone, but not much of it had the pulse pounding even if you were not sure how it would all work itself out. In the meantime, Otika's henchmen were disposed of as the net tightened around him, and this, rather than the locomotive business, offered most of the action, with car chases and so on. The main drawback was a distinct lack of personailty to the whole affair, which was a pity with that fine idea for the jumping off point for possible tension, and while effects, stunts and models were good, this was the best you could say about it.

Aka: Shinkansen daibakuha
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 4341 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
Darren Jones
Mark Le Surf-hall
Enoch Sneed
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
Mary Sibley
Graeme Clark
  Desbris M
   

 

Last Updated: