Review: Train to Busan

Seoul fund manager and ne’er-do-well father Yoo Gong is taking daughter Kim Soo-an on the train to visit mum in Busan. Not the best time for it. After a clearly ill woman on board the train attacks a train attendant, it sets off a chain reaction of people on board being turned into horrible, raging zombies. Kim Eui-sung plays the requisite selfish a-hole on board whose level of self-preservation cowardice is truly jaw-dropping.

 

The only zombie movie that has ever really gotten me emotional, this 2016 film from South Korean writer-director Yeon Sang-ho (his live-action directorial debut) is also one of the few times in a zombie movie where I’ve been upset with a particular character being bitten. And it happens several more times throughout the film. This film doesn’t spare you, and I totally understand the hype on this one. It’s terrific.

 

The zombies look great, the human behaviour is relatively plausible, the scenes of chaos and destruction are excellent, and at the centre of it all is a truly touching father-daughter story. If there ever was to be a zombie outbreak it’d probably look a bit like this: Chaotic and terrifying, people being left for dead…and undead. Even the military personnel get turned into zombies, making you genuinely worried that the situation might be hopeless. The way it’s set up is effective, with people taking quite a while to realise that there’s a very obviously zombified chick ambling about. Eventually someone figures she’s a drug addict having an overdose and it’s on for young and old at that point. The zombies are some of the best since 1978’s “Dawn of the Dead”: Messy, horrible, animalistic, and quick to infect. Put that on a train and holy shit do they have a big problem. “The Cassandra Crossing” with zombies.

 

The train location is really effectively used, where it’s claustrophobic when need be but also expansive enough when need be. It’s a pretty big train with zombies occupying the middle carriages blocking loved ones at opposite ends from getting to one another in the chaos. The father-daughter drama kinda reminded me of Spielberg’s terrifying “War of the Worlds” adaptation where a dipshit dad has to finally act responsible. Some might grow impatient but I appreciated the time spent setting the plot up and introducing the characters. It’s important to me that I care about something or someone here, not necessarily like but at least care. I think the writer-director does it well without being at the expense of pacing. The little girl stole my heart in this one, I didn’t want anything bad happening to her.

 

Like “Dawn of the Dead”, here’s a zombie movie where you don’t mind that it’s a bit long because it’s at the service of something valid. Yes it could’ve been a bit tighter, but it may have been at the expense of the character drama. One of the best films of its year, I really should’ve caught up with this one much sooner.

 

Rating: B+

 

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