✦Elzary
Cinema·4 min read·👀 Watched 2023.03.02

Bullet Train

The back half suddenly threads all the earlier nonsense together — pure popcorn with a tiny pinch of chicken soup for the soul.

2022 · Action Comedy · David Leitch · Netflix

Setting the scene

Behind as always, I finally finished Bullet Train today 😀. This is the third Brad Pitt film I've seen, after Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Se7en (I think). (Taiwan titled it Huoxian Zhuijiling, but I prefer the name Se7en, haha.)

Adapted from the 2010 novel Maria Beetle by Japanese writer Kotaro Isaka. The story is set on a train where the conductor's only function is checking tickets and nothing else, hahaha.

A few (few, few) thoughts

The first half just felt very absurd — the code names between the assassin brothers are so cute 😍, their tough-mouth-soft-heart banter, going on a mission while carrying a Thomas the Tank Engine sticker — I loved that too, so adorable. I love these little details.

But in the first half none of it added up to anything genuinely exciting; the rest is just watching Brad Pitt watch the person next to him have rotten luck while insisting he's the unlucky one who keeps meeting misfortune (the luckiest one is actually you, you know? 🤣). It stayed at the level of a knowing smile.

I didn't expect the back-half reveals (you could say it starts once Yuichi's dad shows up) to thread all the earlier seemingly-absurd bits together one by one — a real sense of everything clicking into place. Paired with Brad Pitt's ridiculous persona, it's just superb! It made me burst out laughing, hahaha. I loved the little post-credit gag (?) — how can there be a question where getting flung by a car actually feels satisfying? (Serves you right, The Prince 👊.)

A popcorn flick with a tiny 🤏 pinch of chicken soup for the soul — I don't feel it wasted everyone's frenzied recommendations from ages ago.

An aside

Yuichi's dad, played by Hiroyuki Sanada — I love his presence. I think he's a perfect fit for a family-loving, widowed ex-yakuza 😍

#movie#action#comedy
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