‘Bullet Train Explosion’
The dedicated conductor Kazuya Takaichi (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) is working on a high-speed train bound for Tokyo when Japan’s transit system receives a call from an unknown person saying a bomb has been planted on Takaichi’s train. If the speed drops below 100 kilometers per hour, it’ll explode unless 100 billion yen (around $674 million) is deposited in their account. The director Shinji Higuchi’s “Bullet Train Explosion,” of course, sounds a lot like “Speed,” with one wrinkle: The bomber isn’t in a remote location. They’re on the train too.
Nevertheless, the pleasure of Higuchi’s film isn’t necessarily the investigation into the bomber’s identity. It’s watching the myriad ways Takaichi, the train’s driver (Non), and the dispatch manager (Takumi Saito) devise inventive solutions, such as connecting two high-speed trains in motion or purposely derailing one of the locomotives, to save passengers like the mysteriously moody schoolgirl (Hana Toyoshima). The sharp editing builds further tension, making even the train’s shift to another track an occasion for sweaty palms.
‘Jade’
Rent or buy on most major platforms.
A pulpy Blaxploitation-coded revenge tale, director James Bamford’s “Jade.” is led by a cutting protagonist. Jade (Shaina West) is an English expat living in an undistinguished town in the United States. Her past comes roaring back when a panicked, soon to be killed friend asks for help stashing an external hard drive belonging to the nefarious gang leader Tork (Mickey Rourke). Frustrated, Tork takes Jade’s pregnant, widowed sister-in-law Layla (Katherine McNamara) hostage — forcing Jade to leap into action.
The plot is so familiar that you can guess the basic beats. The film’s flair resides in West, whose stylish afro and samurai sword make her a formidable lead. Bamford is a former stunt coordinator, so he’s more than capable of crafting arresting confrontations. The climactic fight in a hallway, wherein Jade faces Tork’s worst goons, is reminiscent of “Attack the Block,” with West delivering a ferocity that would make John Boyega proud.
‘I, the Executioner’
Rent or buy on most major platforms.
A sequel to “Veteran” (2015), the director Ryoo Seung-wan’s intense investigative action movie “I, the Executioner” brings back much of its original cast. This time around, the detective Seo Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min) is angling to find a serial killer known in the media as Haechi (the name of a mythical ancient Korean creature that judges good and evil). The executioner targets people they feel have escaped justice, like the recently released man who served the minimum sentence for a murder. To help with the case, the investigative team brings on Park Sun-woo (Jung Hae-in), an upstart cop renowned for his fighting skills.
During the many twists and turns in “I, the Executioner,” Seo and Park chase the unknown killer through drug dens and across rooftops. In one superb sequence, they fight someone who appears to be the executioner in the rain by hydroplaning on their knees toward punches and suplexing him into the ground. Whether this is the real Haechi, however, is left unanswered until a final elaborate set piece in a highway tunnel, whose inventiveness recalls the “Saw” movies.
‘The Order’
Stream it on Hulu and Disney+.
Terry Husk (Jude Law) is the grizzled, overworked F.B.I. agent at the heart of Justin Kurzel’s taut action-thriller “The Order.” He’s arrived in the sleepy surroundings of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, aiming to take it easy and reconnecting with his estranged daughter and wife. But a recent string of robberies and bombings carried out by the “The Order,” a white supremacist terrorist group led by Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult), pulls Husk back into the fray. Husk teams with fellow agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett) and the young police officer Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan) to take down the racist group.
Based on a true story, “The Order” often recalls the angst and brutality of “True Detective” but with more elaborate stagings. There’s a bombing and robbery Husk tries to upend, and the looting of an armored car. Each confrontation between radicals and cops is tightly wound, building through a combination of shadows and gunfire that reveals the darkness in the soul of the United States.
‘Snowstorm’
When the Fan brothers, Ju You (Xing Yu) and Ju Xiang (Zhi Li), seize control of an underworld gang by assassinating its leader, it’s up to Capt. Zhou (Louis Fan) and his investigative team to try to punish the siblings for their crimes.
The director Bolong Ke’s “Snowstorm” is split into halves. The first is your usual police procedural: Zhou gathers evidence, is pressured by his superiors for results and pieces together enough clues to pursue the bad guys.
The normality of “Snowstorm” works up into a blizzard during its second half, when a car bomb planted by the Fan brothers injures one of Zhou’s colleagues. The brothers, along with Ju Xiang’s lover, flee to the mountains, causing Zhou to follow them. The pursuit is a ruthless affair, shot with incredible economy. The compositions are full and the editing is fluid, giving the entire film a feeling of effortlessness.
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