“We’ve never quite had a press conference like that before and never will again,” said Brad Pitt, riding a real Shinkansen to promote his new movie.

Shaun Fernando, JAPAN Forward

The Hollywood movie Bullet Train has been in the news since the trailer was released back in March 2022, and many have been wondering whether the cast will be able to visit Japan, the land of the bullet train, during their promotional tour.

On August 23rd, the star of the movie Brad Pitt, co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, director David Leitch, and other members of the Bullet Train team were at Kōyasan Tokyo Betsuin Buddhist Temple to promote the movie.

They attended a “yakuyoke” ceremony, a traditional bad luck cleansing ritual, as stated by the movie’s Twitter account.

In the film, Pitt’s character is notoriously cursed with bad luck, and the temple visit was meant as a lighthearted nod to that.

As Pitt sat through the ceremony where monks chanted while burning gomagi, specially carved wood pieces with prayers written on them, he described it as being incredibly moving, almost tearing up.

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