Photo courtesy of imdb.com
Train to Busan: Review
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From fear, to anger, to sadness, Train to Busan took me on a roller coaster of emotions. I would have never expected this South Korean zombie apocalypse horror film to have such depth in the storyline and development in the characters. Released in May 2016, Train to Busan builds its story around multiple characters on a train to Busan, a city in South Korea.
It starts off by introducing the two central characters in the story, a selfish fund manager, Seok-woo, and his daughter Su-an. The father and daughter have an estranged relationship due to Seok-woo’s work commitment, and his divorce with Su-an’s mother. Su-an convinces Seok-woo to take her to Busan, where her mom lives.
After Seok-woo and Su-an board the train, a woman with multiple injuries limps on after them. Unfortunately, this woman has been infected and is rapidly transforming into a zombie. After the train’s departure, a stewardess tries to help the infected woman, but ends up getting bitten by the woman turned zombie. This starts the spread of zombies across the whole train.
The passengers, notified of the zombie outbreak in South Korea, are horrified by the zombies in the train. Seok-woo and Su-an escape to a safe zone and later meet the passengers who are willing to help them get to Busan safely. These protagonists include a man and woman who are soon-to-be parents, a young baseball player, and a beggar. However, as these characters fight to the death against zombies on the train, the main antagonist, Yong-suk, does everything in his power to keep himself and only himself alive.
As the train moves closer and closer to Busan and more people are infected, the protagonists slowly get infected one by one, making my blood boil. At the end of the movie, Seok-woo fights against Yong-suk, who became infected, and Seok-woo eventually sacrifices himself in order to save Su-an and the pregnant woman, the last two survivors of the protagonists.
Overall, I was impressed with the actors’ and actresses’ performance in this movie. I was also pleased with the way the zombies were portrayed. The way zombies look and act in this movie is the exact way I would picture them to be in real life.
I’m surprised at how intriguing the setting and background was throughout the entire film, despite most of it being filmed in one train. I liked that the film turned a normal train into a battleground between humans and zombies.
However, the ending left me with mixed emotions, because I feel like there could have been better alternatives on how Seok-woo defeated Yong-suk. Instead of putting his hand over Yong-suk’s mouth and leaving himself vulnerable to a bite, he could have just quickly pushed him off the train.
Although there were some plot holes and things that I believe needed to be clarified at the end of the movie, I do recommend watching Train to Busan if you are interested in anything related to zombies, action, and tragedy.
