Train to Busan (2016)

Train to Busan. Holy shit. Dare I say it’s a perfect zombie movie? At this point I don’t know if I could tell you a flaw. Maybe it was a little long? That’s it. Honestly I just love it. When it comes to world cinema I am open minded. If a story sounds great, if there’s a great review, I’ll watch it and deal with subtitles. Though saying that I don’t seek out foreign films, I don’t track directors or actors projects the same way I do for big British and American stars and I don’t often have the same urgency to watch them. Tend to default go in the ‘I’ll get to it’ pile. Train to Busan should go to the top of that pile and I’m sad I’ve waited this long to watch it. Managed to go to a small cinema in our city centre that’s currently having a Korean cinema fest for the month and catch a showing. The screen was packed and it was the second time viewing for a lot of people who already thought of the film as a classic. And I gotta say I agree. If you haven’t watched many foreign films, don’t worry about it, it’s easier than you think and you don’t realise you’re reading after a few minutes. It’ll open up literally a whole world of movies for you if you can get on board with that. Though yeah the rights have already been bought to remake, but that'll take a while, watch the original!

There are some great characters though we’ve seen them before. Most of the reason you get so caught up is because you’re invested. The film is centred around a businessman who’s a single father trying to make his daughter happy by taking her to see her mum on her birthday. He takes time off work to take her on the train, where we meet the rest of the cast. Who might I add, were all included exactly the amount they needed to be. Some less so than others but never not enough. We meet sisters, two older Korean ladies, who natter and have quite a beautiful narrative on the sidelines. There’s our comic relief and beefcake, a man and his very pregnant wife, who possibly have the best relationship throughout. We have a baseball team, primarily one young man and his sweetheart, a rude older suited man that you will learn to hate and a homeless looking man, who repeats the phrase ‘all dead, they’re all dead’. The cast were fantastic. Stand out has got to be Soo-an Kim, the daughter of the protagonist. She held her own against everyone in the film and her performance was heartbreaking and powerful. Great chemistry with her and everyone else in the cast. My favourite, our funny man and powerhouse of the film, Dong-seok Ma, played a character protecting his pregnant wife alongside calling out our main man for the douche that he is. He’s a joy to watch with and without his charming wife. Most jokes came from him, the film was a lot funnier than I first guessed, and in some aspects almost self-aware of that. But everyone goes through the same confusion and everyone builds up trust and respect with each other at a believable pace. A real ensemble.

So ever sit watching something and not realise you’re tensing? That was me throughout basically the whole film. Oh yeah I should breathe, maybe unclench my jaw and relax my bum cheeks. Fantastic at creating and maintaining tension, without leaning on jump scares to prove a point. Though it did have some thrown in for good measure. I remember actively thinking, this is scary, I’ve not been scared by a zombie in a while and this makes me anxious. One of the reasons I love this film some much is because it made me feel. I don’t care what a film makes me feel but if it makes me feel something that’s major points right there. This film covered it’s bases pretty damn well. It was exciting, it made you angry and frustrated. It made you lose hope and gain it. It made you sad. Goddamn is made you sad. There was honestly a woman full on snot sniffing behind me because she was bawling towards the end of this film. It’s maybe not that sad but it is still an emotional film. There’s progress with the characters and you feel which each and every one of them.

Now I like horror as a genre but I don’t like unoriginality. Which is why I’ve not seen that film where they move into an old house and it’s haunted because the previous person died a strange death, you know the one? Every other blockbusting horror in the past 16 years? Some can be fantastic of course but it’s hard to do well with and without cliches. Now zombies have a wide origin and a wide market, though South Korea hasn’t really adopted this reanimated monster theme quite as heavily as western media. But obviously they’re no strangers to horror. Sang-ho Yeon the director is winning at life, he did an animated film called Seoul Station of the same subject matter, got a bunch of money because he smashed it and went straight to this live action adaptation Train to Busan and smashed that too. I personally loved the direction of the zombies. I think partly because, like many, I’m used to The Walking Dead like, chill af, rotting zombies. These are not that. Once bitten you turn into a zombie within 30 seconds max. They do some crazy contortionist moves, crack some bones and go straight for the nearest human at quite a speed close to fast forward. As we see more of them we find out that they rely on their hearing heavily and can’t see in the dark. They only charge when people are visible and have no understanding on when to stop, because you know, they’re dead. And they are fresh! It’s a normal person with cloudy eyes and some dark veins but otherwise, alive. There’s blood of course but not particularly violent. With the lack of guns there’s no open wounds so no real gore. And because of these elements we get some fantastic scenes. I don’t know if you were a fan of World War Z, I found it forgettable, but Train to Busan does really well in using huge masses of zombies. There’s a few times where you realise the sheer amount of people involved and the speed in which they move and don’t stop moving is terrifying. You really believe how crazy their urge is to eat live humans. It creates absolutely fascinating visuals and I found myself grinning ear to ear through these moments.

Cinematography was good but not distracting, handheld when necessary, but not to replace the action. Kept you claustrophobic in the carriages and uneasy on the wide shots. As I mentioned before, no overt violence, so fresh blood smeared on windows and clothes, though you take notice they don’t steal from the frame. Lot’s of uniform, black and white splashed with the red, the usual greys of a train and it’s station. Paired with the score it was an all round great film on a technical basis. The music was wonderful, partnered well with each scene, definitely got your pulse up and accented the perfect parts of risky scenes. A particular song sung in the film and it’s meaning over silence speaks volumes.

With most monster films there’s usually an underlying message involved. In Train to Busan the whole thing was a debate on morals. Good vs evil, do you help your fellow man or put yourself first, should you make a sacrifice or deal with potentially worse consequences. It’s introduced early on with our protagonist, Seok-woo, played by Yoo Gong, in his difficult decision to take time off work to transport his daughter, that’s seen as a sacrifice to him. In contrast, later on the train, his daughter gives up her seat to one of the older women, with no question. He tells her she doesn't always have to do whats good and she asks why? Her father struggles with the idea of sacrifice, especially with strangers, whereas with young Soo-an it comes so naturally. We follow this line of sacrifice as some characters accept it easier than others and find ourselves debating how much we would sacrifice for a stranger.

8/10 I liked so much of what this film is. The usual question of what you would do in a zombie apocalypse is asked in a much more urgent way, easily the best horror of 2016.