Posted in: Movies | Tagged: entertainment, film, Review, train to busan

Train To Busan Review – South Korean Zombies On A Train

Jonathan Rich writes for Bleeding Cool …

Train to Busan has been in limited release for some weeks now, but when it comes to your local theater, streaming site or DVD kiosk you need to see it immediately even if you are averse to horror movies.

The reason is simple: this film is a whole season of The Walking Dead explored in two hours with no dead moments (pun intended) which deftly surprises and connects with the audience at every turn.

The story begins with exposition vaguely setting up the virus which spreads the ensuing zombie apocalypse across South Korea, but quickly moves on to the heart of the film where a father (Yoo Gong) promises to take his young daughter (Soo-an Kim) from Seoul to Busan to see her estranged mother for the child's birthday.

To make that happen the tense father-child pairing embark on a KTX train ride which, unbeknownst to them, quickly becomes a microcosm of South Korean society when a citizen infected by the zombie plague boards and forces members of a travelling high school baseball team, a pregnant couple, an elderly pair of sisters, and uptight corporate tycoon to deal with the bloody ramifications of the outbreak.

The action is unrelenting as the uninfected face round after ever increasingly difficult round of challenges put in their way and there is an interesting subversive undercurrent involving the South Korean government assuring its citizen the outbreak is merely a civil uprising, but the true artistry lies in the almost beautiful way some of the scenes play out with raw emotion taking center stage out from under the gross physical carnage.

Young Soo-an Kim will melt your heart with her performance as a precious girl surviving her parent's breakup only to face even more terror in the form of twitchy demons out for blood. Yoo Gong envelops his character as a well-meaning father caught in the corporate world trying to keep his family alive before the zombies arrive and then forced into the hero role when they claw and clamor for meat and sinew. Dong-seok Ma also shines as the stoic lower-class husband valiantly trying to protect his wife and unborn child from the villainous horde.

The only misfire in the cast is the actress who plays one of the elderly sisters from underneath a bad grey wig and sparse old age makeup. She never fully embraces her character, but that is pretty much the only criticism one can offer toward this otherwise near-perfect film.

If you are the type of filmgoer who gets frustrated with subtitles, do not allow that to keep you away from Train to Busan. After the quiet start to the proceedings you almost don't even need the dialogue at the bottom of the screen to understand the emotions being presented by the actors.

In fact, I'd say titles are irrelevant when it comes to this film because it should have been named 'South Korean Zombie Train' so prospective ticket buyer would know exactly what was in store.

If 'South Korean Zombie Train' sounds like an interesting time at the cinema for you, do not second guess yourself and see this engrossing import as soon as you can.

Train to Busan
Directed by: Sang-ho Yeon
MPAA rating: R for violence, language and some gore
Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes
Bleeding Cool Critical Assessment: It's a whole season of Walking Dead in the span of two hours and artfully scares the audience with gripping drama shinning out from amongst the gore.

Jonathan Rich is a freelance journalist, high school educator, and self-professed comic book nerd working in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. He writes about entertainment and pop culture for various print and web publications, including bleedingcool.com.

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