Film Review: TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)

TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) South Korea 1hr 58mins

Director: Sang-ho Yeon

"Fellow citizens, please refrain from reaching to baseless rumours. We believe your safety is not in jeopardy." - Government announcement

"I heard you're a fund manager. Then you're an expert at leaving useless people behind." - Sang-hwa

"Mister. I'm scared. Take me home. My mother is waiting for me." - Yon-suk

As the province of Jinyang puts up yet another quarantine zone, it turns out that this is not just a case of foot and mouth disease. Due to a 'tiny' leak in the Biotech District, strange things begin to happen in the surrounding areas. Firstly, with the wildlife then spreading to the human population in the cities. Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) a busy fund manager is in the midst of a messy separation with his wife but has custody of his young daughter Su-an (Su-an Kim). A relatively absent father, who mostly leaves raising his daughter to his mother, is reluctantly forced to take Su-an to visit her mum as it is her one wish on her birthday. Her mother lives in Busan which is a train ride from Seoul which Seok-woo (wisely) does not want Su-an to do alone. The ride to the train station proves eventful as a whole entourage of fire trucks, police and ambulances fly past the father and daughter duo as news of unrest is reported over the car radio yet Seok-woo would rather scald Su-an for messing up her school recital than pay attention to the news. Safely boarded on the train as they are about to depart an injured woman with a human bite wound on her leg boards the train to Busan and as the train pulls away Su-an witnesses a passenger on the platform get jumped by another person. After being largely ignored by the rest of the passengers the injured woman goes stumbling through the carriages, a train attendant finally alerts the other train staff when she finds her collapsed. As the injured woman quickly reanimates she attacks the train attendant in front of the other passengers which puts everyone in a panic. Frantic passengers flee the infected by trying to get to the front of the train. Seok-woo goes into full on protective mode and starts off trying to protect himself and his daughter by being selfish which causes others to get hurt. However, he soon learns that he needs to do more and work with the other survivors if he has any hope of staying alive and getting safely to Busan.

TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) is a real favourite for every zombie movie fan and I have no bad words to say about it. It is a modern day master piece that has smashed many others way out of the park in terms of bold statement making and sentiment that will bring a tear to the eye of many a hardened horror fanatic. As a general rule it has the makings of other classic zombie movies that have gone before it in the tried and tested way of a story of survival, conquering fears, working as a team and, most of all, love and sacrifice which they manage to pull off expertly in less than 2 hours. Other movies have a tendency to overdo the action/bravado or lack conviction within the story. One of the main ways to get people hooked and invested in the characters is to make it a long running series which again takes longer than TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)  to really get that involved. The script writers and actors play a huge part in this to get you to really route for the right characters and instantly take a disliking to the others but at the same time understand why they are doing what they do. It is not just the main cast that holds this movie together, everyone from the bit parts to the zombies are fantastic and fully embody their characters without being too over the top. I have noticed that post TRAIN TO BUSAN Asian zombie movies and shows have tried to recreate certain character troupes but inevitably end up over doing it. In TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) we have a vast demographic of characters from selfish businessmen, teenagers, elderly women, children and professionals that are all put in the same situation together. The great thing here is that everyone on board the train is a normal person, no one has a gun and there are absolutely no heroics. Everyone is shit scared and reacting to bizarre situations as they happen.

The zombies or infected, however you want to describe them, are fearsome and plentiful. TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) was one of THE movies that raised the bar when it came to big scenes of swarming zombies. They went all out in setting up scenes of incredible numbers of ravenous infected all trying to be in the same place at once. Trains and train stations lend themselves to well to these types of scenarios as trains are most likely to be busy, plus as a rule they are long, thin and claustrophobic. Train stations like to funnel people through tunnels, down stairways and corridors. So naturally as a set they are quite a tragic place to maximise brutality when it comes to zombie attacks. Glass and glass breaking play a big part in the dramatics. These swarming moments are not strictly confined to these areas though as they do have some impressive en masse moments outside of the station as well. Looks and action wise the zombies really are more on the infected side of things and are reminiscent of the infected from 28 DAYS LATER (2002) or later in WORLD WAR Z (2013), very fast, very angry, violent slavering ghouls. Incredibly quick to turn and basically running on a primal instinct to hunt and infect others. When not alerted to prey they go into a kind of dormant state and are easily confused by darkness but when they detect you there is no hope! Green screen visual FX play a big part but are well merged alongside practical FX and a fair amount of fake blood. It's action packed and fast paced but I wouldn't say TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) is particularly gory. The zombies bite a lot but you don't see much in great detail. The blood flows freely and there is some bite mark detail and a cool bit with a zombie solider and a dislocated arm but it's by no means a gore fest. If I remember rightly not a single gun is fired, no hint of a knife or sword and not a single decapitation occurs. In fact no zombies are killed on screen they are simply fought off and kept from biting. Okay the odd one or two are thrown from a moving vehicle and a few get very squashed but it is purely circumstantial. The human body count however is through the roof as vast numbers of people are infected and turned within minutes. This only enhances the bleakness of the situation on the whole. 

TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) proves that even though gore is highly entertaining it is not an essential part of making a great movie. I believe this movie is one of the best zombie movies made in the last ten years. The story is compelling, relatable, well paced and superbly shot. There is great chemistry from the cast especially the father and daughter element. Bursting at the seams with equal measures of great zombie action and human sentiment... no wonder it is a firm favourite with so many people. This is also a really great fact to note; alot of people will be put off by subtitles yet TRAIN seems to be an exception. I really love this movie and can happily watch it again and again but with this being said it is not my favourite As far as I'm concerned movies like COLIN (2008), DEADSET (2008)  and CARGO (2017) still rate higher but TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) would most definitely feature somewhere in my top ten favourite zombie movies. I score TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) 4.5 brains out of 5.

TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) is available on DVD and Blu Ray both on it's own or available with it's sequels or sister movies which will also be covered here very soon.