Japan's bullet train network gets a technical tour in this Spark-produced film, tracing a 320-mile route from Tokyo to Osaka aboard a Shinkansen running at up to 177 mph. Engineers and rail staff explain how the system stays on schedule to the minute while crossing a country riddled with earthquakes, typhoons, and mountainous terrain, from the aerodynamic nose designs that tame tunnel shockwaves to the maintenance crews who inspect and clean each train in a matter of minutes during brief platform stops. The film stops along the route to look at the engineering behind track alignment, seismic sensors that can halt trains automatically, and the scheduling systems that let the world's busiest high-speed line run trains only minutes apart without collisions. Archival material covers the line's 1964 launch, timed to the Tokyo Olympics, and its role in Japan's postwar economic growth. Footage from control rooms, depots, and cockpits keeps the focus on how the system actually works rather than just how it looks.