Bullet Points: Train to Busan

I’ve learned to love zombie movies over the years. Everything from Romero and Fulci to Peter Jackson and the Spierig Brothers. The subgenre is somehow unique in its ability to make social commentaries while also delivering on massive gore and destruction. One could go super low budget like The Battery or blow loads of money on CGI like World War Z. Making zombie movies is almost a right of passage for the masters of horror and the fact that the Koreans are now in on the big budget zombie train is an absolute joy. To say that I was excited about watching my first Korean zombie movie would be a massive understatement….

Synopsis: Passengers on a train from Seoul to Busan attempt to survive the trip after a zombie infection starts turning the riders into savage killers.

• Bio Blunder: It’s either a comet, some infectious disease, or the damned government testing some bio-weapons that causes the dead to rise up. Train to Busan tells us that there is a leak in the Biotech district and we’re off and running. I guess the whole voodoo thing isn’t as popular in South Korea.
• Daddy’s gotta work: Seok-woo (Yoo Gong) is a hedge fund manager who spends way too much time working and far too little time with his young daughter. His elderly mother takes care of her in all the ways that he should be and his daughter is left with a massive hole where her parents should be. It’s sad to see but not surprising when you meet Seok-woo. He’s a man with so much work pressure that his marriage collapsed and his relationship with his daughter is on the brink of falling completely apart.

• Carnage on the train: Soo-an Kim’s birthday wish is to see her mother. It’s a tough sell since her workaholic dad is under so many deadlines but he agrees to get her to Busan to see her mom. It’s on board the train where we first begin to see the massive carnage of the infection. Passengers being biting the hell out of each other and the deaths mount as the survivors make their way toward the front of the train. Seok-woo and Soo-an escape by the skin of their teeth a couple of times and we’re shown the absolute carnage that the zombie apocalypse brings with it.
• New friends: An expecting couple played by Dong-seok Ma and Yu-mi Jung befriend our father and daughter (reluctantly) and we’re given a pair of new characters to worry about. If you’ve watched any other Korean movies then you probably know that anyone is fair game. Anyone can die at any time. It’s not like in Hollywood movies where you can normally expect children and pregnant women to live. Korean cinema is relentless and I love it!
• New enemies: It wouldn’t be a zombie movie if we weren’t introduced to some human characters who are just as bad as the hungry dead guys. When people are in a life or death situation they will do whatever it takes to survive. Sadly, some of the other passengers aren’t willing to risk their own lives for the lives of the elderly or little kids. It leads to some scenes which will get you asking yourself “what would I do in that situation?”

• It’s an ugly world: We spend most of the movie on the train so the extent as to which the world has gone to hell is told mostly from the news stations that they randomly come across or the phone calls that Seok-woo gets from his friend. I’m probably not spoiling anything by saying that the situation is terrible. They stuck on a train full of zombies, of course, but they also don’t have anywhere safe to get off. The stations are crazy and some of the train tracks are blocked by wreckage. It’s all bad news…
• Papa bear: I thought the relationship with the father and daughter was the heart of the story. I couldn’t help but think the little girl played an excellent role. She was never whiney or annoying. If anything, her dad was a little more of a wimp than she was. The arc of the story is about those two characters getting from point A to point B. Only it’s not just a change in geography. They’re going from a couple of characters questioning themselves to two characters who have very distinct goals. The father becomes a dad. Amidst all the death, he learns more about love than he ever understood before.

The Verdict: Train to Busan is now among my favorite zombie movies of all time. I laughed, I nearly cried, and I gained a greater appreciation for the innate ability of the horror movie to teach us something about ourselves while also scaring the daylights out of us. Busan is never short on the action. The survivors are literally fighting/running for their lives for most of the movie but it’s the quiet moments amidst all the chaos that make the film more memorable. Yoo Gong and Su-an Kim’s strained father/daughter relationship is both relatable and devastatingly realistic. The movie pulls the mirror in front of us and forces us to consider our own work/life balance and whether or not we’re leaving a positive lasting impression on our offspring. It shouldn’t take a zombie apocalypse for us as parents to show a little sacrifice and caring for our children. Now excuse me while I go board up my windows in preparation for the war with the undead….