‘Bullet Train’ filmic digressions in three songs

the world is a Vampire

Within a week, the ‘Bullet’ Train hit a global venting spot of justifiable, and pandemically exaggerated, rage. Aided and abetted by the Speed (all puns intended) of a cleverly put together intergenerational flick locked and stocked with delightfully distracting visual, action and comic turns, the ‘Bullet Train” movie topped the box office listings within days.

On the ‘Bullet Train’, Ladybug (Brad Pitt) is a mercenary in transition, on the verge of questioning the ethics of his professional choices. After a break to heal what we can allude to have been a rage filled toxic personality turn common in his line of work, Ladybug is offered a safer job by his handler – Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock). All he has to do is pick a cash filled briefcase off the Tokyo to Kyoto bound bullet train and get off at the first stop after. Easy peasy lemon squeezy if you didn't know there is a gang of assassins with conflicting goals - Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Yuichi (Andrew Koji), Hornet (Zazie Beetz), Wolf (Benito A. Martinez) - sharing the ride.

To be precise - five assassins, a young Prince (Joey King) with psychopathic designs that mess with everyone’s plans, and a venomous snake on the loose. With the snake being the least problematic of the lot.

As Ladybug discovers, the world on this bullet train he can’t seem to get off, is a vampire and it is out for his blood. Which is, of course, a fairly accurate reflection of power mongering in current sociopolitical systems – ones that feed into wars and, more pointedly, let death spread like viral wildflowers in what seems like the never ending COVID19 pandemic era. And, much like the message of the ‘Smashing Pumpkins’ music, ‘The World Is a Vampire’ used in the animated art section of this review, Job-like Ladybug is paying dearly for needing to earn a bob*.

The meta flows of life-blood in the movie are just as complicated as the vampirism of modern vices tugging at our souls as we try to keep faith in a shifting future. The bullet train has both blood taking and sustaining flows: Ladybug and Maria type avoidance of blood spills vs everyone else’s aptitude for psychopathic killing or revengeful death seeking. Mimicking these powerfully controlling vampiric forces, we have invisible voices in the head[phones] flowing through the train. Maria and the Elder are digitally present as they advise Ladybug and Yuichi, respectively, through a landscape that gets more dangerous by the minute – keeping them alive and sane. White Death (Michael Shannon), the Russian leader of a vicious organised crime family in Japan, and his equally psychopathic offspring, Prince, manipulate death through the phones of Tangerine, Yuichi and others. In the journey from Tokyo to Kyoto, Death and her Friends battle through multiple mediums of control on this bullet train, much like our new normal news feeds.

Despite the mirroring reality of being stuck on a bullet train, an undeniable part of the film’s appeal lies in the infusion of light in this filmic endeavour – in witty dialogue, improvised comedic ruses and visual design - more on that in review Node 2 coming out Sept 10, 2022. In the meta narratives of control, the ‘Bullet Train’ does a decent job of integrating the other meta practices that currently balance human sanity in an excessively violent and greedily raging planet: the re-emergence of mass mediated shifts toward mindfulness and well being. Be it Japanese wisdom philosophies as practiced by the Elder (Hiroyuki Sanada), the zen like ploys of a children’s book series or Ladybug’s zealous efforts to integrate his conflicting new emotional depth into his lethal combat skills.

*bob: British term for denomination of their currency (shilling). Used in slang to refer to cash e.g earn a bob or two

 back