My Thoughts on "Bullet Train 🚅🇯🇵"
Note:
This was originally written on Thursday October 27, 2022, and it was originally posted on DeviantART the day after on Friday October 28, 2022. Now, this was more of a movie that my Dad wanted to watch. It was probably his most anticipated movie of the year back in 2022. It was really the only movie he wanted to see, and the only movie he wanted to watch all year. We never got the chance to see it in theaters, so we had to watch it on Blu-Ray 💿. I mention this in the review itself, and I even mention how we got the Blu-Ray 💿.
As for why I decided to repost the review on here now, I really don't know. I just started thinking about the movie again. Especially after I watched that one video put out by CBS Sunday Morning talking about all the good news that we all missed in 2023. Because you know, the news cycle only focuses on all the bad news, all the bad things that happen in the country or in the world. That, or they talk about the most outrageous thing that happened, the most sensational thing that instantly grabs people's attention, and therefore grabs headlines. So, in a lot of we miss a lot of the good news that happen throughout a year for whatever reason. Maybe because they couldn't fit all the good news happening in with all the bad news they were covering, or because it's so mundane that it isn't attention grabby enough. It's so mundane and low level that you can't make a sensationalist headline about.
But, the good news that CBS Sunday Morning covered in their video are actually big things and not just mundane low level kind of stuff. Like, they talked about how inflation went down over the course of 2023, how crime rates have gone down, how the amount of Americans 🇺🇸 with Bachelor's Degrees has gone up, how even CO₂ emissions went down despite 2023 being the hottest year on record 🥵. We'll see if it keeps that record in 2024. I'm really curious to see if 2024 have summers ☀️ as hot 🥵 as 2023's, or if they'll be hotter 🥵, or if it'll be cooler this year than last year. Like, instead of going all the way into the hundreds like last year, it'll just stay in the 80s and 90s. I'm hoping for the latter instead of either of the former.
But, the thing that really grabbed my attention this video was the infrastructure stuff, specifically, the railroad stuff 🛤️. They talk about this company called Brightline became the first company to build a privately owned rail line in a hundred years. The train they built is capable of going from Orlando to Miami. They didn't say in what amount of time, but they said it can travel between those two cities. But, it's not just the private sector getting back into the rail line or railroad game 🛤️. The US government 🇺🇸 has poured $8.2 billion 💵 into rail projects in 44 states as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed a couple of years ago that Biden really championed as apart of his "Build Back Better" initiative. Keep in mind, all of these infrastructure projects, all of these improvements in roads, and railroads, and whatever all achievements of Biden and his push for bipartisanship. So, if you don't think he's doing anything or if you think he's not doing a good job, think again.
But, one of rail projects 🛤️ that the government has invested money 💵 into is the country's first bullet train 🚅. That's right, we're finally catching up to Japan 🇯🇵 and getting our own bullet train 🚄. This one that's currently being worked on is expected to go from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in 2 hours and at 200 miles per hour. Las Vegas as in Las Vegas, Nevada, not Las Vegas, New Mexico. You always have to clarify that, especially if you live in New Mexico like I do. Anyway, when I heard this, it got me thinking, "What if there was a Bullet Train 🚅🇯🇵 sequel? And what if it were set in America 🇺🇸?"
I even wrote a joke about in the comment section of that video, I even put the exact comment I wrote here, "Does this mean that Bullet Train 2 🚅 will be set in the United States 🇺🇸 instead of Japan 🇯🇵?" Indeed, if there is a Bullet Train 2 🚅, I do think that setting here in the US 🇺🇸 would be a really great idea. Not just the fact that we're getting our own bullet trains 🚄🚅 now, but because it would help differentiate it form the first film. So, that it doesn't feel like rehash. It would be a pretty different movie with a different feel than the first one just by the virtue of being set in a different country, surrounded by a different culture. They could even call it, Bullet Train 2: Stateside 🚅🇺🇸, if they didn't just call it, Bullet Train 2 🚅🇺🇸. How you would get another group of assassins onto the same train again for the second one, I'm not sure. But, I'm sure the screenwriters could sort that one out.
Another thing that I learned about this movie since I last watched it, and since I posted my review of it back in 2022, is that my grandma has a personal connection to the one of the songs on the soundtracks, "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto. If you don't remember that song or where it's placed in the movie, it's the song used in the water bottle 💦 scene at the end of the movie. What I like to call the "life of a water bottle 💦" scene since I'm convinced that it was inspired by the "life of a bullet" opening title sequence in Lord of War. The movie just turned into Fiji commercial for a full minute or so. Anyway, it's the song that's used in that scene.
My grandma has a sort of deep connection to this song because her mom or her grandma used to listen to it all the time. I think it was her mom, but it could've also been her grandma too. Whoever it was in her life, they used to listen to this song a lot, and she really liked it since her mom or grandma was playing it so much. My grandma that the song is from the 1950s, but it's actually from the 1960s. It came out in the year, 1961 to be exact.
When I first heard this song in Bullet Train 🚅🇯🇵, I was under the impression that it was from the 70s because most of the older songs on the soundtrack are from the 70s. But no, it's from the 60s. And it was apparently a popular song in the 60s, even in the US 🇺🇸 because my grandma and her mom or grandma were able to listen to it and have fond memories of it. She just misremembered which the decade it came out in since she said it came out in the 50s, but it was actually from the 60s. She was born in 1956, meaning that she would have been 5 years old when this song came out. So, it's a little bit forgivable that she doesn't remember the exact year or decade the song came out in.
Songs from foreign countries were not as widely available in the US 🇺🇸 as they are today. It's not like now, where you can go on YouTube and find any song from any country from any decade. So, if a song from a country like Japan 🇯🇵 was able to heard by Americans 🇺🇸 back in those days, it was usually because it was a really popular song that managed to make it stateside. Still, even if it wasn't a 50s song like my grandma said, it's pretty astonishing to me that a Japanese song 🇯🇵 would become as popular as this song did back in the 60s, just a couple of decades after World War II ended.
You'd think that there still would've been some Japanese hatred 🇯🇵 left lingering that most Americans 🇺🇸 would be against any song from that country. But, I guess not. I mean, they were already releasing Godzilla movies in the US 🇺🇸 at this time. Yes, highly re-edited Americanized versions 🇺🇸, but still Godzilla movies regardless. Other kaiju movies from Toho and other Japanese studios 🇯🇵 like Daiei were getting released here too at the time like Mothra, Rodan, Varan the Unbelievable, and of course, Gamera, Godzilla's main competition from Daiei, the rival studio to Toho. Americans 🇺🇸 and Japanese 🇯🇵 really did bury the hatchet pretty fast. The relation between the US 🇺🇸 and Japan 🇯🇵 is one of the quickest and most dramatic turnarounds in history. They literally went from being bitter enemies, fighting each other to the death on tropical islands 🏝️ across the Pacific, to being the closest allies. The alliance between the US 🇺🇸 and Japan 🇯🇵 is one of the longest standing alliances in East Asia. The cultural exchange between the two countries alone is huge.
I also didn't know that there was an English language version of this song, but apparently there is because my grandma asked to find it online. There's actually two English language versions of "Sukiyaki." One of them is by a band called A Taste of Honey 🍯, which is probably the one my grandma was probably thinking of since that band was of her time. That version of the song came out in 1980, and my grandma would have been 24 years old at the time. And she's really into that band since she's into all the disco era bands 🪩, which A Taste of Honey 🍯 was, although obviously, they made music after the disco era 🪩 ended, which it did in the 80s. The other English version is by band called 4 PM, which is a boy band, and their version came out in 1994.
I've listened to all three versions of this song, and I can confidently say that my favorite version is still the original Japanese version 🇯🇵 by Kyu Sakamoto. With that out of the way, let's get on with the review. Oh, and I have seen a couple more Guy Ritchie movies since I wrote this review back in 2022. I saw Guy Ritchie's two releases for 2023, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and Guy Ritchie's The Covenant. I say that because I mention Guy Ritchie in this review. You'll understand why when you get there.
I also talk about two movies that are Tibet and the Dalai Lama, Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun in the updates (or notes) of this review, since I mentioned Brad Pitt's involvement with Seven Years in Tibet, and how he was banned in China 🇨🇳 because of that. He's completely barred from entering the country because of he starred in a historical drama epic about Tibet and the Dalai Lama. So was Martin Scorsese and pretty everyone else involved in the making of Kundun, the other Tibet movie about the Dalai Lama's early years and conflict with China 🇨🇳 and Mao Zedong. You'll see when you get there.
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I just finished watching the 2022 action comedy film, Bullet Train 🚅🇯🇵 and I thought it was pretty good. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie. It was a movie that my dad really wanted to watch. He didn't get the chance to see it while it was in theaters, so when I spotted it at Best Buy a few days ago, I thought we should get it so that he can finally watch it. Of course, I didn't actually buy it myself, and I didn't even buy it Best Buy. My aunt bought it for us, my Dad and I, and she bought it from Target.
So, we finally watched it, and it definitely surprised me. It was a lot more mysterious and non-linear than I was expecting. When I went in, I thought it was just going to be a standard action movie with Brad Pitt getting on a bullet train 🚅 and fighting a bunch of eccentric assassins, but the story is a lot more twistier than that.
At first, when the movie starts, you're not really sure what's going on, and who's who, and why are they there. But, as it goes along, you slowly start to piece together thanks to flashbacks, deduction, and thanks to the introduction of other characters and good ol' exposition. It was actually pretty clever, like I didn't really know what was happening until it got to the end, and by then, I was like, "Oh, that makes a lot of sense."
So, for the sake of maintaining the mystery, I will not give too much away as far as the plot is considered. All you really need to know going in is that an assassin code-named Ladybug 🐞 (Brad Pitt) is sent on a mission on bullet train 🚅 in Japan 🇯🇵 to retrieve a briefcase. But, along the way, his mission impeded by a bunch of assassins and other eccentric characters who also happen to be on the train 🚅 at the same time. They do have a connection to one another, but none of them know it yet, and they all individually figure out that there is a greater mystery going on on this train 🚅 and the assignments they've been sent on.
That's all I'll say about the plot, I don't want to give anything else anyway. This is a movie that you have to experience for yourself, and you should try to unravel and figure out the mystery behind the story yourself instead of having me or someone else tell you all the answers. It is definitely told in a non-linear fashion, like that's part of what makes it a mystery and what makes it so entertaining to try to piece it together. It's not a standard A to B story that's for sure.
The movie was a lot more comedic than I had initially anticipated. I mean, I knew that it was going to have humor in it, just going back to the trailer, but I didn't know that it would be a comedy. That's why I categorized it as an action comedy at the beginning, although it is more of a comedy for most of it, but towards the end it does become more of an action movie. And a pretty bloody one 🩸 at that, like people get stabbed in this movie, they get cut in half, and they get shot, and the gunshots are pretty bloody 🩸. This is definitely an R rated movie, and it is a rip-snorting good time. I definitely liked the action scenes in this movie.
I even thought the jokes were pretty funny at times. Like, I was genuinely surprised at how much I laughed at the humor in this movie. Usually, whenever I see a newer movie that tries to be comedic and funny, it kind of falls flat, and it doesn't really end up being very funny. But, this movie definitely is pretty funny 😂, so I'll definitely give it props for that. The style and editing definitely helps with the humor as well. This movie has a very unique editing style, I really don't know how to describe it. It's very witty and very weird and eccentric.
It sort of reminds of Guy Ritchie editing. Like, that's the best way to describe this movie, it's like a Guy Ritchie movie, like the kind of movie he would make; that wasn't by Disney 🙄. Everything from the humor, the editing, the style, the non-linear storytelling, and even the characters and the dialogue. It's all like a Guy Ritchie movie that Guy Richie didn't direct. I'm not even sure if I can even use that comparison since I haven't really seen that many Guy Ritchie movies. The only Guy Ritchie movie that I've actually seen is The Man From U.N.C.L.E. back in 2015. I've seen parts of the first Sherlock Holmes movie he directed, but as far as the movies of his that I've seen, Man From U.N.C.L.E. is the only one. I've never seen Snatch, I've never seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I've never seen The Gentlemen, and I've never seen Wrath of Man.
I haven't even seen King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which is considered one of his lesser movies, like one of his movies that was bad or was considered bad. And of course, there's the 2019 live action Aladdin with Will Smith as the Genie 🧞♂️, but I won't count that because that was a Disney movie. Guy Ritchie really didn't have a lot of creative control of that movie, and his style and his traits don't shine through in that movie. Plus, it's considered one of the "bad ones" of Guy Ritchie's career, despite grossing $1 billion at the worldwide box office 💵. But, that's partially due to people being sick of Disney's live action remakes 😒, not entirely Guy Ritchie's fault.
Anyway, this movie definitely reminds me of a Guy Ritchie movie, and not just because it has two British guys 🇬🇧♂︎ in it and it's a crime comedy. I mean, technically, it has two British guys 🇬🇧♂︎ and one British girl 🇬🇧♀︎, but I don't know of the actress that plays her is actually British 🇬🇧 or not in real life, and plus the character isn't even actually British 🇬🇧 as we find out later on at the end, but I may be saying too much on that.
I may be spoiling stuff just by saying that the female assassin ♀︎ in this movie (or at least one of them) isn't British 🇬🇧 despite her accent. So, if you like Guy Ritchie's movies, then you'll definitely like this movie. We've seen a lot of movies recently that have been inspired by Quentin Tarantino, and maybe one or two that have been inspired by Wes Anderson, well this is an example of one that was inspired by Guy Ritchie.
Speaking of which, this movie has definitely has a pretty interesting cast. Obviously, there's Brad Pitt, but you also have Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the guy who played Kick-Ass in Kick-Ass, Ford Brody in Godzilla (2014), and Ives in TENET, and Brian Tyree Henry, the guy who played the conspiracy theorist guy in Godzilla vs. Kong. So, that's two actors who have connections to the MonsterVerse series. And if you really want to go deep with the MonsterVerse connections, Brad Pitt was an actor that I had suggested a long time ago to be in an American War of the Gargantuas remake 🇺🇸 if they ever made one and set in the MonsterVerse, since Brad Pitt stated that the original 1966 War of the Gargantuas was one of his favorite movies. I still think that would be a pretty awesome choice.
But, there are other actors and actresses that I recognized in this movie like Joey King, who I mostly know from the Kissing Booth 💋 movies on Netflix, she plays the main girl ♀︎ in those movies. I haven't actually watched any of the Kissing Booth 💋 movies, but I have seen people react to them in reaction videos or do reviews of them on YouTube, and they are definitely movies that people like dunk on a lot. They're a lot like Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey in that way, where they're romance movies ❤️ that people love to hate. But, I wonder of how much of that is just guys ♂︎ not liking romance movies or "girl movies ♀︎" and wanting to poke fun at them whenever the pop up, and how much of that is the movies actually being bad.
Anyway, she's in this movie, and she's pretty good in it. She has a British accent 🇬🇧 in this movie, and she's that female assassin ♀︎ that I mentioned earlier. I really don't know if Joey King is actually British 🇬🇧 or not because she didn't have a British accent 🇬🇧 in the Kissing Booth 💋 movies, she had an American accent 🇺🇸 in those movies, a Californian accent. But, if she isn't actually British 🇬🇧, and she is an American 🇺🇸, then she did a really job putting on a British accent 🇬🇧 for this movie. Like, she may very well be one of the few American actors or actresses 🇺🇸 who can do a British accent 🇬🇧.
There's also Hiroyuki Sanada, who's an actor who's pretty much in anything that has to do with Japan 🇯🇵. Like, if you have a plot takes place in Japan 🇯🇵 or has to do with Japan 🇯🇵 or if you have a character who is Japanese 🇯🇵, then Hiroyuki Sanada is usually the actor that you turn to. Either him or Ken Watanabe. It's a lot like how Hollywood often casts James Hong in anything that has to do with China 🇨🇳 or Hong Kong 🇭🇰 or has to do with Chinese culture, or anything that has a Chinese character of some kind. But, I can see why a lot of Hollywood movies cast Hiroyuki Sanada because he's a good actor, and he was pretty good in this movie.
There are also plenty of unexpected actor cameos in this movie, like actors and actresses you had not idea were even going to be in this movie, and likely were never even listed in the credits, but are definitely cool to see and are pretty funny in their short cameo roles. But, I'm not going to tell you who these secret cameo actors/roles are because I want it to be as much of a surprise for you as it was for me. I'm not even going to tell you who plays the main villain of the movie, the White Death because that's kind of a secret too, like it's a mystery who the White Death is, and I feel like if I tell you which actor plays him, it would ruin the experience.
As for Brad Pitt, the main lead himself, he was excellent in this movie. He's being a lot of comedy roles recently, like ever since he started appearing in Quentin Tarantino movies, he's doing a lot more comedic roles than serious roles. I mean, he still doe serious roles, but he does a lot more comedic roles than he used to do back when he was younger, like in the 1990s and the 2000s. Back then, it was mostly serious roles like Se7en, Fight Club, Seven Years in Tibet, and the Ocean's movies (Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, and Ocean's Thirteen).
The most comedic role he did, to my knowledge, before Inglourious Basterds was Thelma & Louise, which is funny because that was one of his break out roles. But, he is good at doing comedy roles, and this role as the confused, bumbling, and wannabe pacifist assassin, Ladybug 🐞 is no exception. And I'm sure he'll do great in Babylon, that upcoming 1920s period movie by Damien Chazelle, the director of Whiplash, La La Land, and First Man 🌕.
Even the train itself 🚅 is pretty cool. Like, bullet trains 🚅🚄 in real life are already pretty awesome and fascinating feats of engineering, but the one in this movie is on a whole different level. It really is like a character in its own right in this movie, it's constantly throwing curveballs and obstacles for our protagonists to contend with, the assassins who are all on assignment on this train 🚅, trying to kill each other or trying to steal the briefcase. It really does keep them on their toes.
Lastly, the music in this is pretty good. The soundtrack has a whole bunch of songs by various artists like Pussy Riot (that Russian feminist band 🇷🇺♀︎ that got banned and then exiled from Russia 🇷🇺 by Vladimir Putin), Siiickbrain, Avu-chan, Alejandro Sanz, Upstahl, Tamio Okuda, Shuggie Otis, Engelbert Humperdinck, Song for Memories, Miki Asakura, and Rare Earth, just to name a few. I haven't heard of most of these bands or artists, except for Pussy Riot, and I haven't had the chance to listen to all of the songs, but the songs I have heard are pretty good and I definitely would like to hear the rest.
The most notable songs are the Japanese cover 🇯🇵 of the Bee Gees song, "Stayin' Alive," which is the song by Avu-chan and the song that plays in the trailer, the Japanese cover 🇯🇵 of the Bonnie Tyler song, "Holding Out for a Hero" which is the song by Miki Asakura. And of course, there's the song, "Power" by Siiickbrain and Pussy Riot, which I guess plays during the end credits, though I didn't hear it but that might be because I took out the disc 💿 before the song was played in the end credits. But, the actual score by Dominic Lewis is pretty good too, I feel like it's being overshadowed by the soundtrack album with all the songs by all those artists I just mentioned.
I would definitely recommend this movie. It's a fun, eccentric, weird movie with great acting, great editing, great direction, great music, great humor, and great action. It may not be for everyone, but if you like crime comedies, particularly those in the style of Guy Ritchie, then you'll definitely like this movie. It's like if you mixed a Guy Ritchie movie with Deadpool and then set it in Japan 🇯🇵. Which makes sense since this movie was directed by the same guy who directed by the guy who directed the second Deadpool movie, Deadpool 2, David Leitch. And he was likely inspired by Guy Ritchie and his crime movies like Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (which actually came before Snatch), The Gentlemen, and Wrath of Man when he set out to make this movie. Oh, and stick around for the credits. The movie doesn't end with the end credits, there's a little more 😉.
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BTW Seven Years in Tibet is not a Disney movie. I know there's this idea out there that Seven Years in Tibet was a Disney movie, that it was one of their live action movies that they made in the 1990s, and Disney has decided to shelve it and not give it another release because they don't want to upset the Chinese 🇨🇳. And there's this idea that it's one of Disney's black sheep movies that they have locked away and refuse to release again or even acknowledge, not even on Disney+, like Song of the South, The Black Cauldron, and the Mickey Mouse short, Runaway Brain 🧠.
But, this is completely wrong because Seven Years in Tibet isn't even a Disney movie at all. It's a Tri-Star movie, meaning that it's technically a Sony movie. And given that Sony doesn't have a dedicated streaming service of its own like Warner Bros. or Disney do (unless you count Crunchyroll which is mostly just for anime), the movie is available to watch on Netflix if you want, if you're curious enough. I just wanted to clear up that misconception about Seven Years in Tibet, because a lot of people erroneously believe that it's a Disney movie.
I first heard this on China Uncensored 🇨🇳, an anti-China YouTube channel 🇨🇳 dedicated to "exposing" all of the bad things or the questionable things that the Chinese government 🇨🇳 does, or specifically the bad or questionable things that the Chinese Communist Party 🇨🇳☭ does; while exposing the parts of Chinese society 🇨🇳 and the Chinese government 🇨🇳 that the government and the party want to keep hidden from the outside world. They aren't the most reliable source of information about China 🇨🇳, and they have spread a lot of misinformation about China 🇨🇳, or bent the truth to fit their political agenda. Misinformation that has undermined the real and worthy fight against China 🇨🇳.
They are essentially a propaganda channel for Falun Gong, a crazy cult group that was created by a guy named Li Hongzhi, who currently lives in exile in the United States 🇺🇸 inside of a giant multimillion dollar compound 💵 on the east coast near New York State or in New York State, pretty much isolated from the rest of the world; a largely self-imposed isolation. I don't even think anyone's even seen him since he fled China 🇨🇳 into the US 🇺🇸. He doesn't even give any interviews with any news outlets or journalists. He is a complete recluse. The man has some wacky beliefs. Not only does he have very far-right political beliefs, but he is also anti-evolution, believing that it is a false theory, that organisms don't evolve over time, or branch out into different lineages, and humans aren't apes and aren't related to apes.
He also purportedly believes that aliens 👽 from other dimensions are responsible for all the technology that we humans use, and that they are responsible for all the wars throughout human history, and they will help us gain immortality. He's also incredibly racist, like he is against race mixing, he believes that mixed race people are sinners, and that when we all die, we all go to planets that correspond with our races, like a planet for white people, a planet for black people, and planets for the various Asian people and other racial and ethnic groups in the world. And he pushes a lot of these beliefs in the Falun Gong religion itself and through other means.
Like he created a performing arts group called Shen Yun, and he create the media organizations, The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD), all of which spread the message of Falun Gong and push its political agenda, which is a staunchly anti-China one 🇨🇳. They want the world to believe that Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted disproportionately in comparison to other religious groups in China 🇨🇳, and that they're having their organs harvested. When the evidence doesn't add up to that being true.
It is true that the Chinese government 🇨🇳 has cracked down severely on Falun Gong, and it's a banned religion in that country, but it's not to the extent that Falun Gong or their media organizations, or their performing arts group, Shen Yun are trying to make it seem. The organ harvesting thing is mostly not true. Yes, it is true that the Chinese government 🇨🇳 has harvested organs, but not of Falun Gong practitioners, but of prisoners, especially political prisoners.
But, anyway, sorry to go on that long tangent, I just want to explain China Uncensored 🇨🇳, and their connection to Falun Gong and other media organizations that the cult has created to spread their message. China Uncensored 🇨🇳 is apart of NTD, though the people at China Uncensored 🇨🇳 themselves will never admit that because they want to present themselves as being fully independent, even though they aren't, that is a complete lie.
But, the media groups that Falun Gong has created, Epoch Times and NTD are the most destructive because they are extremely far-right, and they push a lot of conspiracy theories and misinformation, like they're very pro-Trump because Falun Gong themselves are very pro-Trump (they believe that he's a messiah who will destroy the Chinese Communist Party 🇨🇳☭ for good, who they see as literal devils 😈), and I'm sure that ever since the 2020 election 🗳️, they've been pushing election denial stuff 🗳️ as well.
That's why don't like Falun Gong, or Epoch Times, or New Tang Dynasty, or China Uncensored 🇨🇳 not just they're willing to spread misinformation, but also because they help push this election denial 🗳️, pro-Trump, right-wing bullshit onto the masses, and it hurts our democracy as we've seen since 2020; the American populist right 🇺🇸 and the American far-right 🇺🇸 are trying to dismantle our democracy and turn the United States 🇺🇸 into a dictatorship; we can't let that happen, and I won't stand for anyone, even people who are anti-China 🇨🇳 like Epoch Times, NTD, and China Uncensored 🇨🇳, aiding in that effort or being complicit in that effort to overturn our democracy, and send us down the path of authoritarianism; if American democracy 🇺🇸 falls, and is replaced with autocracy, then democracies around the world will be weakened and will probably fall as well.
Anyway, China Uncensored 🇨🇳 were the first ones that I heard to suggest that Seven Years in Tibet was a Disney movie and that it was one of the ones that Disney has locked away and has been trying to bury. In fact, I first heard of Seven Years in Tibet because of them. And I've already gone through that detail to explain why they aren't a reliable source and shouldn't be trusted. But, I think a lot of people bought into the claim that it was a Disney movie because it was just fun for them to think that Disney made a movie that not only acknowledged Tibet's existence and its existence as a separate place from China 🇨🇳, which it was in actual history up until the early 1950s, but also covered China 🇨🇳's violent invasion and annexation of Tibet in the early 50s.
When of course, nowadays, Disney is trying to do everything it can to be cater to China 🇨🇳 and appease China 🇨🇳 in order to gain access to their film market, as are every other studio. But, it isn't a Disney movie, it's a Sony movie (released under Tri-Star), so this idea is based on a misconception, but the status of the movie, largely holds true, even with it being a Sony movie and not a Disney movie.
Tibet is a very touchy subject for the Chinese 🇨🇳, like it's one of their no-go area for them as far media depictions are concerned. Ever since they annexed Tibet in 1951, they've been doing everything they can to suppress Tibetan culture, the Tibetan language, and Tibetan identity, and basically Sinicize the region (a region that had been de facto independent for 39 years prior to the annexation), much like what they've been doing in Xinjiang as well, though with less concentration camps.
They even kidnapped the Panchen Lama, the one selected by the Dalai Lama as in Tibetan Buddhist tradition (the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism), when he was barely 6-years-old, and then replaced him with their own Panchen Lama, who most of (if not all) the Tibetan diaspora and most of the Buddhist world ☸️ don't recognize as legitimate.
Many people believe the reason why the Chinese government 🇨🇳 did this was to undermine the Dalai Lama succession process (the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama), since one of the Panchen Lama's duties in Tibetan Buddhist tradition is to oversee and recognize the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. But, if the Chinese government 🇨🇳 can undermine this process, and bring it more under their control, then they can either destroy the Dalai Lama tradition entirely or have more direct influence over it, and thus, have more control over Tibet.
The exact whereabouts of the original 11th Panchen Lama (the real one) are unknown, but what is known is that he is still imprisoned by the Chinese government 🇨🇳 and they have refused to release him or disclose where he's being kept, or even let the outside world see him at all, despite calls from the UN 🇺🇳 and governments around the world to do so.
The most Chinese government 🇨🇳 has said as far as telling the world what happened to the original 11th Panchen Lama was say that he was a "college graduate with a stable job," but they have never provided any evidence to prove this, which has led many to believe that they are lying; no duh. The original 11th Panchen Lama is considered to be the youngest political prisoner in the world, or at least the youngest person to be become a political prisoner in the world because he was only 6 years old when he was arrested by the Chinese authorities 🇨🇳.
Anyway, given how sensitive of a topic Tibet is for China 🇨🇳, most movie studios and most companies that operate in China 🇨🇳 or work closely with China 🇨🇳 tend to avoid it entirely. Because if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that it's distinct or even separate from China 🇨🇳, then they won't play your movie, or they won't let you operate in China 🇨🇳 at all if you're a manufacturing company or an airline company or something, or they'll cut ties with you and refuse to sponsor you. That's the main reason why the Ancient One character was changed significantly for the MCU Doctor Strange movies. The character was originally male ♂︎ and was originally Tibetan, but China 🇨🇳 didn't like this, so they decided to make the character female ♀︎ and make her a white woman ♀︎.
And that's why the movie, Seven Years in Tibet was banned in China 🇨🇳 when it came out (in 1997) because it was about Tibet, it took place in Tibet, and it focused on a very dark and shameful part of Chinese history 🇨🇳 that the Chinese government 🇨🇳 really doesn't want their own people to know about or the rest of the world to know about. This very imperialistic and colonialist part of their history that they refuse to acknowledge or apologize for. I mean, why would they? They're still doing the same things, both in Tibet and Xinjiang.
Brad Pitt himself is barred from going to China 🇨🇳 and any movie that has him in it is also barred from release in China 🇨🇳, all because he starred in Seven Years in Tibet. That's why, for example, World War Z 🧟♂️ wasn't released in China 🇨🇳 because it had Brad Pitt in it, and he was involved in Seven Years in Tibet; it wasn't the only reason, but it was a big contributing factor. And I'm sure that Bullet Train 🚅🇯🇵 was not released in China 🇨🇳 either because Brad Pitt is the main star of that movie.
I wonder if that gave the filmmakers more creative freedom with that movie to do whatever they wanted, knowing that the movie wasn't going to be released in China 🇨🇳 anyway because Brad Pitt's in it. Like, I bet it took a little weight off of their shoulders, even if their movie doesn't take place in China 🇨🇳, and takes place in Japan 🇯🇵.
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Update (Thursday October 19, 2023):
There is another Tibetan film that was produced by Disney. It was Kundun, a Martin Scorsese film; or a Martin Scorsese picture as many like to say. The film was released by Disney's subsidiary, Touchstone Pictures, which used to be Disney's go-to label whenever they wanted to release a film that was more for teenagers and adults; you know, other than Miramax. The movie is a biopic about the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. It shows his early childhood all the way to adulthood. This is what makes it different from Seven Years in Tibet.
Kundun is more focused on the Dalai Lama specifically, whereas Seven Years in Tibet was more about a guy who visited Tibet and met the Dalai Lama. So, you get a more intimate look at the Dalai Lama and what he went through over the course of the 20th century, as well as a more intimate look at Tibetan culture; at least, as it used to be during the early-to-mid 20th century. We're seeing this story through the eyes of Tibetans, as opposed to seeing through the eyes of a white man ♂︎, you know, an outsider looking in.
As you would expect with any film set in Tibet, and focused on Tibetan culture, and the Dalai Lama specifically, Kundun was banned in China 🇨🇳 upon its initial release, and it's still banned in China 🇨🇳 to this day. With Kundun it was even worse because they actually depict Mao Zedong, like they actually show Mao interacting with the Dalai Lama in one scene, showing the time that the Dalai Lama met Mao for the first time, and discussed the status of Tibet. And Mao isn't portrayed in the most positive way, I mean, why would he be?
He's literally a colonizer trying to conquer the Dalai Lama's land, his home country, and he's also an atheist who openly hates the Dalai Lama's religion (Buddhism ☸️) and questions his legitimacy as a spiritual leader. So, of course the Chinese government 🇨🇳 and Chinese censors 🇨🇳 had a huge problem with that, and they refused to allow this movie to be shown in their country. In addition, many of the people involved with this film are barred from entering China 🇨🇳, including Scorsese himself, and the film's cinematographer, Roger Deakins; so Scorsese and Deakins are both in the China travel ban club 🇨🇳 along with Brad Pitt, Robert Redford, and Richard Gere.
Despite that, Kundun was met with huge praise. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, and it was nominated for four Academy Awards, though it didn't win any of them. However, Kundun has sort of been buried and forgotten about over the years. The movie is not very widely available, given that it's a Disney movie, it is not on Disney+ or on Hulu, nor is it on Blu-Ray 💿. The only way you can watch this movie is on DVD 📀 or on YouTube, since some people have uploaded the entire movie to YouTube. This makes it Martin Scorsese's most obscure movie and the one least discussed, at least nowadays.
Like, when people talk about Scorsese films, they never bring up this movie. It's always Goodfellas, or Casino 🎰, The Wolf of Wall Street, or Killers of the Flower Moon (his most recent movie at the time of this writing), or The Departed, or Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Gangs of New York, or The Aviator. You're more likely to hear about The King of Comedy, or Bringing Out the Dead, Hugo, or The Last Temptation of Christ, than you are Kundun. And part of the reason why this movie is so obscure, and so difficult to find is that Disney might be consciously trying to bury it. Not to get overly conspiratorial, but it seems that Disney is trying to sweep this movie under the rug, and not giving it a proper HD release on physical media or on streaming because they don't want to upset the Chinese 🇨🇳.
As I've said before, Tibet is a red line for China 🇨🇳 (for the Chinese government 🇨🇳), and they oppose any discussions or films about Tibet and the Dalai Lama, unless it's on their terms. If you acknowledge that China 🇨🇳 annexed Tibet, if you acknowledge that there were uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule 🇨🇳, if you acknowledge that the Dalai Lama had to flee from China 🇨🇳 and went into exile in India 🇮🇳, or even if you just acknowledge that Tibet was once an independent country from China 🇨🇳, then they won't accept it, and they'll ban your movie or series or book or whatever.
The Chinese government 🇨🇳 doesn't want their people, and the rest of the world to know about this pretty shameful part of their history, or know about how the injustices and mistreatment they're still inflicting on the Tibetan people to this day. So, they rather hide it, or rewrite history entirely to have people accept their narrative, their version of history, instead of facing it head on and learning from it; that's the condition for people who want to do business with China 🇨🇳 or do business in China 🇨🇳.
And Disney obviously wants to still do business in China 🇨🇳, they want their films and TV shows to be shown in China 🇨🇳, seemingly despite increasing tensions with the United States 🇺🇸, so they're more than willing to comply with their censorship laws. I mean, this is the same company that knowingly filmed parts of the 2020 live action Mulan movie next to a Uyghur concentration camp in Xinjiang, and then thanked them for it in the end credits; they thanked the Chinese government agency or department 🇨🇳 that runs those concentration camps for letting them film next to those concentration camps. So, are we really all that surprised that Disney is willing to compromise its morals and artistic integrity for the sake of profit 🤑?
Disney is trying to bury Kundun. Even when it first came out, it was given a very limited release, and had little-to-no advertising, so hardly anyone saw it because hardly anyone even knew about it; and it tanked at the box office because of that. And once it went on home media, they've been making it as difficult to find as possible, and just generally trying to make everyone forget that it even exists at all. They're basically treating it like Song of the South, another film from their back catalog that they've purposefully made very difficult to find, and they'd rather people forget about.
Even though, for me, Kundun is more historically and artistically important than Song of the South. Kundun is about real historical events, it's about a real person who's still alive, and the political ramifications are still relevant to this day; though that's not to say that Kundun is an overtly political film, by all accounts, it's more of a spiritual film with some political elements because the story of Tibet and the Dalai Lama is both spiritual and political.
Tibet is still under Chinese rule 🇨🇳, the Dalai Lama is still in exile, and people are still debating about what Tibet's status within (or outside) China 🇨🇳 should even be. The Dalai Lama just wants Tibet to have greater autonomy, like he said he's given up on independence and just wants Tibet to have more autonomy and a level of self-governance. But, we all know that China 🇨🇳 is unwilling to grant the level of autonomy to Tibet that the Dalai Lama has been advocating for; and even if they did, we all know they could just take it away whenever they want.
For me personally, I think if Tibet is ever to have the level of freedom and self-determination that people have been wanting, that the Tibetans have been wanting, then the only answer is independence. Tibet must become an independent country once again, if it is be free from any sort of Chinese control or coercion 🇨🇳. I'm sure the people of Xinjiang and Hong Kong 🇭🇰 have also made that calculation.
Unless there's a regime change, and the communist regime ☭ in Beijing collapses, and is replaced with something else that's more friendly and more willing to listen and more willing to grant these peoples and these territories the freedom and autonomy they desire, then the only real solution to Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong 🇭🇰's problems is independence. That's just where we are, as far as these issues are concerned. So, Kundun is valuable in that way in understanding somewhat how we got here, and why things are the way they are with Tibet.
But, anyway, I just wanted to write this update to let know that there is another Tibet-based movie that was put out by Disney. The people are China Uncensored 🇨🇳 likely got this movie confused with Seven Years in Tibet, which I suppose is forgivable since these movie were released the same year, and only months apart. Yes, this is another case of twin films, where you have two movies with similar titles and premises being released the same year by two different studios.
The China Uncensored 🇨🇳 people were probably unaware of the existence of Kundun, and assumed that Seven Years in Tibet was the only historical Tibet movie that was produced by Hollywood in the late 90s. But, the fact that they did that shows the level of research they're willing to put into their videos; which I suppose makes sense since they're just Falun Gong propagandists, and don't necessarily care about facts.
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