Director Higuchi Shinji, known for his work on films such as "Shin Godzilla" (2016), appeared at the Netflix lineup announcement event "Next on Netflix 2025" held in Tokyo on February 12th. Director Higuchi, who is rebooting the 1975 blockbuster film "Bullet Train Daibakuha" for the first time in 50 years, revealed that he has cast Kusanagi Tsuyoshi in the lead role, playing the role of the conductor. This is the first time in 19 years that Director Higuchi and Kusanagi have teamed up since "Japan Sinks" (2006).
The Netflix movie "Bullet Train Explosion" was produced with the special cooperation of JR East. A tense phone call came into the JR East Shinkansen General Control Center, informing them that a bomb had been planted on the Hayabusa 60 bound for Tokyo, which would explode immediately if the bullet train's speed dropped below 100 km/h. The criminal demands 100 billion yen as a ransom to defuse the bomb. This nonstop suspense drama follows the desperate battle of the railway workers as they struggle to avoid the explosion within a limited time frame.
Kusanagi plays the lead role of Takaichi, a conductor who struggles to avoid an explosion inside the Hayabusa No. 60 car. Director Higuchi reportedly asked the 50-year-old Kusanagi to perform some hard action that was not in the script, "I have to jump a short distance." After Kusanagi managed it with ease, he complained, "Director, I'm not the same as I was 20 years ago." Director Higuchi praised him, saying, "He's definitely around fifty now. He was so light-hearted that you couldn't tell." "The depth of 20 years of life has been brewing inside him, and it seeps out. It's a role where he has to endure and persevere, and I thought, 'Ah, this is the face I wanted to see,'" he said, appearing pleased with Kusanagi's more mature acting.
This production was shot using real Shinkansen trains and facilities, fusing realistic footage with the latest VFX. An actual Shinkansen train was used to make seven round trips from Tokyo to Aomori between schedules, and the exterior of the train in motion was filmed using a 1/6 scale model, the largest of its kind in Japan. Director Higuchi said, "We also made extremely long rails," and revealed that a large-scale shoot was carried out in which "we had to speed up and film without the camera moving," and that "everyone involved in the special effects came to see (the set)." The first day of streaming is April 23rd. Cast members other than Kusanagi will be announced in due course.
