Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka

Author: Kotaro Isaka 

Title: Bullet Train 

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2010

Pages: 464

Genre: Crime Thriller 

     Five killers are on a bullet train from Tokyo competing for a suitcase full of money. Who will make it to the last station? An original and propulsive thriller from a Japanese bestseller. Satoshi looks like an innocent schoolboy but he is really a viciously cunning psychopath. Kimura's young son is in a coma thanks to him, and Kimura has tracked him onto the bullet train heading from Tokyo to Morioka to exact his revenge. But Kimura soon discovers that they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard. Nanao, the self-proclaimed 'unluckiest assassin in the world, and the deadly partnership of Tangerine and Lemon are also traveling to Morioka. A suitcase full of money leads others to show their hands. Why are they all on the same train, and who will get off alive at the last station?

     Last Weekend, me and my brother went to the cinema to see the new film based on this book. After having spent a joyous two hours watching it I came out and head down two blocks to one of my favorite book shops and snapped up a copy.  Now, this is not something I generally do as I like to give it some time between reading a book and watching a film or tv show. But honestly, I was on a bit of a cinema high so I figured why not. What I would say is, right off the bat is that when you read the blurb off the back of the book you realised that they have clearly made some changes from this source material for the film. But then again in this day and age are we expecting too much for things to follow the source material point for point or is it more interesting to see how someone else tackles the text? 

     Over the years I have read quite a few books from Japanese authors and for me at least I have always been very aware that they were written by Japanese authors. They have a very set structure to them and as books from any country, you are always fairly aware of it. Here however we get a book that feels very different. To me, this is a book that has a very American pulp fiction feel to it. There is this sort of over-the-top action thriller that does have the feel of some of those great seventies exploitation films. It is a genre that I have greatly enjoyed over the years. Isaka blends all this into a more traditional Japanese crime thriller so what we are left with does feel like something fairly unique to him. And whilst I was a little concerned going in that I was going to be reading would be a mirror image of the film here however they made a fair amount of changes especially as to how the narrative all gets wrapped. So I think for me having tackled them this way round I was pleasantly surprised by each of the new twists and turns. 

     As for our heroes, there are also clear changes here. First off I would say that in the book each of the characters gets a bit more of an even time in play. For me Nanao the charters played by Brad Pitt is probably the closest to his written counterpart.  He is definitely just a very unlucky person and never quite seems to be in control of what is going on around him. I was also pleased to see that  Tangerine and Lemon were still very much present as they had been some of my favorite characters. They  bring in a great amount of humor to this book. But much like the rest of this book in comparison to the film, they seem like a more subtle version of themselves. But I would say that is only because of the way round I tackled this. I think had I come at it from the book first then this would most definitely seem very much larger than life. In many ways I suppose we would be better off comparing it to some of the wildly popular crime anime shows as they have that sort of feel to them. And honestly, I'm all here for it. It seems to me that Isaka had a very clear image of how he wanted to not only portray his world but also those people that inhabited it. Freeing himself from a more traditional style feels like he has opened it up to a much more reluctant audience than might otherwise have occurred. 

    This was a book that I found so easy to get into that once I started I did not want to put it down despite having seen the film. There was enough that was changed that at times it felt like I was witnessing a whole new story.  Ehter way it was most defintly worth shelling ot the cash to read it despite having seen the broader storkes on the big screen.