Since my last film review was a horror film, I’ve decided that I might as well review horror films for the rest of October. Tis’ the season after all . . .
Unless you’ve been living under a tombstone, one of the most popular horror genres currently out there is the zombie genre. This genre started with George Romero’s Night of The Living Dead and continues on in the present with shows like The Walking Dead. Despite being such a popular trend and genre (not only in film and television, but also books, comics and video games), some people have been getting tired of seeing zombies everywhere, and I’m not talking about tired co-workers. With the abundance of zombie media going around, some people have been getting a case of “zombie fatigue” and if I may be honest, I was starting to get it too. It wasn’t always like this though, there was a time in my life where I was OBSESSED with zombies and consumed everything about them. But eventually, I started to grow tired of them, that is until I saw this one film that rejuvenated my excitement for zombies. That film was the 2016 Korean zombie horror movie, Train to Busan, directed by Yeon Sang-ho.
Characters
For this review, I’ll be doing something different. I’ll be talking about the characters first, then the story. Why? Because unlike other zombie movies, the characters in this film are interesting and great.
Our main father character, played by Gong Yoo, is not only a great actor, but his character is very realistic, likable and relatable one at that. At the beginning of the outbreak, he only focuses on his own safety, but more importantly his daughter’s safety. He doesn’t really think of the other passengers at first. But as the movie progresses, he grows to learns that he and the rest of the passengers are all in this together. I always like seeing this growth in horror film because usually it’s the monster that’s the most interesting and not the characters. But here however, not only are the zombies cool, but so is our main characters.
Now, I just want to talk about the daughter character, actor Su-an Kim, because she absolutely kills it. In the film, she is this really smart kid that made me concerned for her safety throughout the film. But what was most important was her performance towards the end of the film. I won’t spoil anything, but you’re definitely going to cry. Unless you’re dead on the inside like a zombie.
If there was one minor gripe I had about the characters, is the main antagonist. Besides the zombies, the film’s villain is decent and is certainly despicable at some parts of the film. But sometimes I felt he was a bit too much of a cartoony bad guy, and less of a realistic protagonist. Thankfully, this did not bring down the entire movie for me.
Story
This film takes place in modern day South Korea and follows a man and his young daughter traveling by train to visit his recently divorced wife in Busan. While on the train however, a zombie outbreak takes place and all the passenger have to do everything they can to survive. At first glance, this may seem like a generic zombie movie. You have your average man who is suddenly in the middle of the zombie apocalypse and has to rise to action to protect others and those dear to him. What makes this tale of the undead different however are three things:
- Characters and how they grow.
- The setting.
- The zombies.
You already know about the characters, so let’s talk about the zombies first because they are terrifyingly awesome. What make the undead menace in this film scary when compared to other films, is that these guys don’t slowly walk towards their prey. Oh no no no, they run. Scratch that, they SPRINT towards their food. Now this isn’t the first instance of running zombies, as other films before like 28 Days Later had them. But I can’t think of many films besides this one that do have running zombies, which is a shame because they are much more scarier here than in other films. The undead in this film are also very durable. There are scenes where the zombies fall from huge heights, one where a normal human could not survive. Yet, they still get up as if nothing happened. The undead cast of this film is without a doubt, ruthless. I love it.
I also absolutely adore the train setting of Train to Busan. Reason being that it is a unique setting the characters (and filmmakers) fully utilize this environment to their advantage. For instance, there is a scene where a group of survivors have to get through a narrow train car that is full of zombies. Instead of fighting them off one-by-one, which would be a stupid idea, they decided to be smart and crawl above the baggage shelves where the zombies could not see them. I really like how the filmmaker knew they were filming in a train and was able to use all of this environment to the best of their filmmaking abilities.
Final Thoughts
You may realize that unlike my other reviews, I do not have a music section here. That’s because the music isn’t really all that memorable. It gets the job done by setting the tone, but it was nothing that I find myself humming to. Well, there is this one song that whenever I hear it, I think of this movie. That song being “Aloha Oe.” If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll understand why.
In the end, definitely give this movie a watch this holiday season. Not only are the zombies awesomely terrifying, but it is so engaging to watch this great cast of characters survive this ordeal within such a unique setting. Even if you have “zombie fatigue” like I had, you should still give this movie a watch. You won’t be disappointed. But please, don’t wait for the recently announced American remake to come out. Like most remakes, it won’t live up to the original, along with being completely unnecessary.
Train to Busan is available for streaming on Netflix.
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