Based on the book Maria Beetle by Japanese crime novelist Kōtarō Isaka, the film is a somewhat loose adaptation that utilizes an international cast of characters and has faced whitewashing accusations, particularly from David Inoue, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League. Isaka, however, responded to this backlash in a recent interview with The New York Times, and said that the characters are “not real people, and maybe they’re not even Japanese.” And though the setting is clearly Japan, production designer David Scheunemann tells AD, “We were not interested in copying reality.”
There’s a gag involving a Japanese toilet, and there’s an entire train car dedicated to a fictional anime character, but overall, the titular bullet train is a cartoonish (on purpose) and heightened amalgamation of different design influences, with distinct cars helping the viewer to keep track of characters as they move about. On a Los Angeles soundstage, the team built one economy car and one first-class car, plus “a couple of extra bits and pieces, like the lounge car and all the bathroom connectors, entrances, and exits,” Scheunemann explains.
