Movie Review: Train to Busan (2016)

Train to Busan is a South Korean zombie film, which also happens to be the most entertaining zombie film that has come out in the past several years, (albeit a claustrophobic one at times) at least in my humble opinion. The premise is a pretty simple one, yet it's done quite effectively. This film comes from debut director Sang-ho Yeon, who in the past has mostly directed animated films. 

The film surprisingly generated quite a large amount of buzz at the 2016 Cannes film festival, and for good reason. It might not be the freshest take on the idea of zombies, but it comes with quite a bit of energy at you, and is brutal and bloody in the best way possible. 

The films main protagonist Seok-woo (Played by Gong Yoo), is a divorced, workaholic businessman. He is quite self centered most of the time, and only seems to care about his work and not his personal life. He shares an apartment with his mother as well as his daughter who he sees part time, yet still neglects the both of them. This is shown early on, as he buys his daughter a Nintendo Wii for her birthday, forgetting that he already purchased one for her previously, which is set up full view in her room. 

To try and apologize and make it up to her, he agrees to her one and only request, which is to go back home to her mothers so she can spend her birthday with her (She lives in Busan, if you couldn't guess). Due to how busy Seok-woo is with work and his mistakes with his daughter, he doesn't pick up from the news about the mass riots happening all over the countryside and cities. At the very start of the film, we're shown a zombiefied deer, letting us know that the virus spreads cross species. 

We're also shown that contamination of the virus is nearly instant. Once they arrive to the train station, the director shows us the rest of our main cast. A pregnant woman and her husband, a highschool baseball team, an overly obnoxious businessman, the train conductors, and a pair of older sisters. As they board the train, we see a woman getting on board who is clearly not well and showing symptoms of illness. 

Very quickly (Not even 25-30 minutes in) the group of people find out right away about the epidemic that's going on when the ill woman falls down, then proceeds to get back up and tear out someones jugular. The virus spreads quick, giving seizure like symptoms, foaming at the mouth, and a general look of decay. The person bitten quickly revives and starts going on a bloody feast as well. The zombies in this film are a mix of the 28 days later type with George A Romero's style zombie. 

A very fast, rabid, decaying creature. The virus spreads in the train so quickly, that in just a few minutes almost everyone has turned zed. You would think how does the movie last for 2 hours in that case? But, the director ramps up the tension and suspense every so often, and just when you believe that the situation couldn't get worse, it does. 

The way the dead reanimate is very interesting as well, and I believe the directors past work of animation helped this. The zombies come back to life in a very reanimated type way, almost looking like they're being shocked with high voltage electricity with how much they twitch, twist and jump. I won't spoil anything, but his zombies also have very unique traits that most zombie flicks don't have, and it makes it even more interesting. 

The first hour of this film progresses very quickly, then it starts to progressively slow down the pace a bit. The ending however picks it back up a little bit, and gives a very heartfelt and memorable ending. This exciting, high energy filled horror film is near perfect for me, and I can't imagine any fans of horror films or zombies in general wouldn't like it. I can only say to give it a watch and see. Me personally? I highly recommend it! 

Hope you've enjoyed this review! Thank you for checking out my post! If you did enjoy it, please feel free to resteem, comment, or upvote. I would greatly appreciate it :)