Energetic
Director David Leitch, known for gritty and gory action-packed films such as 2017’s Atomic Blonde, 2018’s Deadpool 2 and last year’s Nobody has made his return to the big screen with the action/comedy Bullet Train. Based on Kōtarō Isaka’s 2010 novel, MariaBeetle and adapted for the screen by Zak Olkewicz, it stars Brad Pitt as Ladybug, a trained killer who finds himself in an intertwined with five other assassins on a high-speed bullet train travelling from Tokyo to Morioka. It quickly becomes apparent that their missions are not unrelated to each other.
When coming across the initial synopsis of Leitch’s Bullet Train, you would be forgiven for thinking it was going to be an entirely different film. Bullet Train has a tone that is very similar to Leitch’s other films in the sense that while there is high-impact violence and sordid subject matter, there is also quite a bit of humour woven into it. Whether it’s the director’s way of leaning into his experience as a stunt actor or if he has an interest in Tarantino films, it is unclear. However, you cannot deny that Quentin Tarantino hasn’t had even an unconscious impact on this film. Everything from the heavy blood and guts to Jonathon Sela’s vivid cinematography is filled with references to traditional and contemporary imagery associated with Japan along with lots of neon tones. Even the script’s wicked humour is littered with Tarantino-isms and is a reminder of films such as Kill Bill and Death Proof. You could even argue that the dynamic between characters, Tangerine and Lemon (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry is not unlike the dynamic between Vincent and Jules in 1994’s Pulp Fiction.
There are even aspects of this film that borrow from Tarantino’s fluid-storytelling approach. From the get-go, Bullet Train strays hard from conventional storytelling tropes. There is a healthy amount of graphics and scene jumps that aid in providing context to the film, while the occasional fourth wall is also broken. However, while the plot of Bullet Train advances at a high-speed pace (pun intended) this approach to storytelling sometimes leaves very little room for scope. As a result, many filmgoers may find Bullet Train hard to follow in certain moments. Despite this, actors Bratt Pitt and supporting players such as Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Joey King, Brian Tyree Henry and Andrew Koji manage to put their own stamp on their respective characters. Particularly, Pitt whose performance as Ladybug brings an endearing level of charisma and wit that is not unlike the one so many are charmed by in real life.
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