Train to Busan (2016)

September 30, 2018

Directed by: Sang-ho Yeon

Written by: Joo-Suk Park, Sang-ho Yeon

Starring: Yoo Gong, Yu-mi Jung, Dong-seok Ma

Budget: 10,000,000,000 (Korean) $8,900,000 (USD)

Quote: "Dad, you only care about yourself. That's why mommy left."

Trivia: Train to Busan (2016) is the sixth highest grossing domestic film of all time in South Korea.






I have a friend who is reeeaaalllly into K-Pop so a while back when I was looking for horror movie recommendations, she recommended the Korean zombie film, Train to Busan. Train to Busan takes the well worn zombie narrative and puts it on a train which does make for an exciting movie. The movie also includes all the zombie narrative tropes (selfless acts of sacrifice, dread over ability to protect love ones, justice for the selfishness of individuals). What the film really excels at is the use of the sense of empathy it creates for the father and daughter. The characters are well developed and and it makes for a well developed movie. Also, the filmmakers added a few elements to the zombie story. The zombies in the film are fast, fast changing (a matter of minutes if not seconds), sense people based only on sight, and are generally dumber than your classic zombie. I'm a slow zombie guy, but this film is fun nonetheless.

The film follows a divorced workaholic and largely absent father and his daughter as they try to survive on a train of zombies with a pregnant woman, her badass husband, and a teenager boy and girl. The father and daughter are on the train to Busan to meet his exwife when a woman with a bite enters the train and turns into a zombie. This is followed by your general zombie melee with people running around getting bitten. Eventually many of the zombies are quarantined to one cart and when the people try to get out at another station they realize that it too has been overrun by zombies so back on the train they go. Somewhere around this point they discover that if they put a put something between cars to stop the zombie's visibility, they chill out. After a lot of fighting and backstabbing by other passengers who leave them to die because they are afraid (another zombie trope), they eventually get to Busan and are rescued by Korean soldiers.

It's your classic zombie plot, but on a train. However, there are some really heartfelt moments that set the film apart from others. The developing relationship between the father and daughter is one of the more interesting aspects of the film. The father initially is concerned only with his daughter and his own safety and it is not until the daughter makes him realize that he needs to put others before himself when she tells him, that "the reason mom left you is because you only think about yourself." His transformation comes to a climax when he is bitten at the end protecting the daughter and as he changes into a zombie his last thoughts are a montage of moments with her.

The real star of the movie however, is the pregnant lady's badass husband. He has all the funniest lines and is the one out there kicking zombie ass while everyone else cowers in fear. "Hey, arsehole. Felt good to see your kid thanks to me? Are you grateful or what?" Apparently this guy was a trainer for the director and the director liked him so much as a person he threw him into the film. True to hero form, he is the first one to be killed, sacrificing himself to protect his wife.

As is usual with many zombie movies, the villain isn't always a zombie, who behave on instinct alone, but a human, who's freewill cannot be forgiven. This movie's villain is a business man who is absolutely vile. At one point he locks the train car behind him leaving several people who could've been saved to be eaten by zombies as a safeguard for his own safety. He is also the one who gets everyone worked up about the new people on the cart and nearly starts a riot getting them kicked off the train and left to die (keep in mind that a child, two teenagers, and a pregnant woman are among this group). Finally, he uses several of the group as bait to lure zombies in their direction so he could try and make a getaway. The villain continually refers to others as lesser than himself based on class conventions. At one point he even chastises the main character's altruism, exclaiming, "Good riddance. Always giving to others instead of to yourself. Why did you live like that? What was the point? What a load of crap." A class war during a zombie war.

The movie was pretty good, the special effects are great and the movie is really bloody. I'm just really burnt out on zombies. The Walking Dead went stale a while ago and there have been just so many movies since 28 Days Later made zombies fast (I know they're not technically zombies, but let's not split hairs here... they're pretty much zombies). For my money, I still like the slow zombies. I think it was the creator of the Walking Dead or maybe it was George Romero who explained it this way; it's the difference between fear and anxiety. Fast zombies cause fear because unless you fight or run really fast they're going to kill you quickly. Slow zombies cause anxiety. You can outrun a slow zombie and most people can outfight a slow zombie, but it's that anxious feeling of know eventually, one day, they will get you.

I think I'll watch another of those Italian zombie films soon. That's more my jam. Maybe you disagree? What's your thoughts...?