Review | Bullet train

It's been a while since Hollywood seems to drink only of adaptations. Be they from the universe of comics, games and books. And it's also been a long time since the US adapted works from Korea and also from Japan.

And now it has been released in the West, an adaptation of one of the biggest phenomena in Japanese literature, Bullet train, from the writer Kotaro Isaka, with Brad Pitt in the lead role. The film even suffered a little before its release by switching from Japanese actors to Western actors in addition to changing some elements.

Read too: Bullet Train | All about the film based on one of Japan's biggest publishing phenomena

But taking that away, Bullet train it's a good movie and even “faithful” to the source material. Of course, there are changes - taking away the ethnicity of the characters - to be able to take to the screens in the best way, what the book has best. Most of the dialogue in the book Bullet train, are in the adaptation, as are the goals and in-jokes.

Bullet train it has a good script, an interesting structure and a look that reminds us of current manga and cinematographic works when it comes to oriental countries like Japan, full of lights and colors.

This is even interesting, especially for the presentation of the characters, which is comical and makes the viewer well aware that they are watching a movie that is not to be taken seriously and is just for entertainment. And it does it very well.

In Bullet train, Brad Pitt is the protagonist Ladybug, an unlucky hired assassin who is determined to do just one more job quietly after having gone through so many others that have gone out of his control.

Fate, however, has other plans; and Ladybug's latest mission puts him on a direct collision course with lethal adversaries from all over the globe; all with conflicting but connected goals; on the world's fastest train – and he has to find a way to get off.

Read too: Review | Bullet Train – Kotaro Isaka

The actors' interpretation is very comical, especially Brad Pitt who is really enjoying his role. One of the only problems is the trio of characters that in the book have an excellent base story but in the movie they were totally lost, in the case of the Prince, who here is a girl, of Kimura and her father.

It's not the actors' fault, who are really good, but they made a bad choice of adaptation by removing all the dramatic background from Kimura and the involvement with the Prince that culminates in several twists within the book and that were lost in the movie. .

In addition, the totally different ending of the book is a real kick, being a Tarantino-style ending and where all reality and physics are forgotten in favor of the blockbuster. Had they kept the narrative of the entire movie and followed the end of the book, Bullet train could have had a more dignified and funny ending, mainly for its twist that was lost.

In any case, the film is a good adaptation, even if some actors have been misused as Masi Oka, Karen Fukuhara (The Boys, Suicide Squad), Andrew Koji (Warrior, GI Joe) and Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai, Mortal Kombat 2021). Just the Japanese actors.