Japanese novels

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Bullet Train–Brad Pitt dazzles in action-filled trailer, looking much different than the source material

March 3, 2022

Before you go out and read the novel the movie Bullet Train is based on, check out my review here at borg from last year. Perhaps the English edition is a poor translation of Kotaro Isaka’s novel Maria Beetle, but I’m thinking it’s just simply a dry novel with a good title. Either way, for a title like Bullet Train, it was lacking in many ways. Happily, the first trailer for the movie adaptation starring Brad Pitt looks nothing like the novel, which was an homage to Thomas the Tank Engine cartoons (seriously!). In the movie trailer Pitt appears like he’s stepping back into the role of Cliff Booth, that badass brawler from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (who was even better in Quentin Tarantino’s novel than in the film). So the good news is director David Leitch, known for actual action content like Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw, and John Wick, seems to be disregarding the book and focusing on what audiences would expect from that title: a big action movie.

Full of style and color (and action!) backed by a Japanese version of the BeeGees’ Staying Alive–check out the trailer for Bullet Train:

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Tags: AAPI actors, AAPI creators, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, All You Need is Kill, Andrew Koji, Atomic Blonde, Bad Bunny, BeeGees, Brad Pitt, Brian Tyree Henry, Bullet Train, Bullet Train book review, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cliff Booth, David Leitch, Deadpool 2, Edge of Tomorrow, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hobbs & Shaw, Japanese novels, Joey King, John Wick, Kotaro Isaka, Logan Lerman, Maria Beetle, Maria Beetle book review, Masi Oka, Michael Shannon, Murder on the Orient Express, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, popular train movies, Sandra Bullock, Silver Streak, Snowpiercer, Source Code, Stayin' Alive, Strangers on a Train, The Commuter, The Great Train Robbery, The Lady Vanishes, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Thomas and Friends, Top 10 Train Movies, Trading Places, train movies, train novels, Under Siege 2, Unstoppable, Von Ryan's Express, Zazie Beetz

Bullet Train–The novel behind the next Brad Pitt movie arrives next week

Filed under: Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms — Leave a comment

July 30, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s All You Need is Kill is an example of a spectacular Japanese novel that translated perfectly to the English language and Western audiences in the movie adaptation, Edge of Tomorrow, later renamed Live. Die. Repeat. Kotaro Isaka’s Bullet Train, initially re-titled from its original name Maria Beetle, is the next Japanese novel on its way to the big screen, not starring Tom Cruise but Brad Pitt, expected to arrive in theaters next year. It’s not what you’d expect, which is good or bad, depending on your tastes. Despite that evocative title, it’s surprisingly not an action thriller. It’s billed as social satire, like the French graphic novel turned Chris Evans movie and TV series, Snowpiercer, and that’s pretty much what readers should expect from Bullet Train, the novel, arriving in its first English edition in U.S. book stores next week. If Snowpiercer was your thing, you may want to pre-order Bullet Train now here at Amazon.

The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, Unstoppable, Murder on the Orient Express, Strangers on a Train, The Lady Vanishes, Von Ryan’s Express, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Silver Streak, Source Code, and yes, Snowpiercer, are the top 10 movies you probably think of featuring train action (oh, and don’t forget the original action movie, 1903’s The Great Train Robbery, discussed here and remade several times, plus props are due for train flicks The Commuter and Trading Places). In each of these, a train goes out of control, or it gets highjacked, or hit by an avalanche, someone is kidnapped or killed, or the train is the target of a terrorist attack–all the kinds of dangers that couple well with a fictional speeding train.

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