Written and Directed by Sang-ho Yeon
Cast: Yoo Gong, Soo-an Kim, Yu-mi Jeong, Dong-seok Ma, Woo-sik Choi, Sohee, Eui-sung Kim
Soundtrack: Jang Young-gyu
Honestly, I’ve been over the whole zombie craze for more than a few years now (kind of like how I miss the days when bacon was just bacon). I enjoyed the first season of The Walking Dead well enough, but the show lost me with the Season 2 premiere (because I don’t watch a show with zombies in it for some lost little girl I don’t care about). Frankly, the genre has never gotten better for me than Shaun of the Dead, which is now more than a decade old (and, yes, I know it’s a comedy), but, when I saw the teaser trailer for Train to Busan, I knew I couldn’t stay away.
I wish I could say I loved this movie. I wanted to love it. There are so many elements to love about it, but at times it gets bogged down in melodrama, as in, when things get melodramatic, they get REALLY melodramatic, which is a turn off for me, especially in a contemporary movie like this. I don’t mind my heroes being emotional beings, but a little subtlety goes a long way (again, Shaun of the Dead pretty much nailed this). This may be a cultural thing that’s lost in translation (I’m not an expert on Korea), but regardless, I found it to be a detriment.
Even still, I really liked the movie, because, overly emotional moments aside, Train to Busan is pretty awesome. It’s like a mix of your standard zombie survival story and an Irwin Allen disaster film (e.g. The Poseidon Adventure), with a dash of class warfare thrown in for good measure (which anyone who’s seen Snowpiercer is well familiar with).
This is one I really don’t want to give too much away on, so, I’ll just say that the action is mostly handled quite well, the suspense might just be the biggest strength of the picture, and, while definitely violent, the movie isn’t so gory as to turn away a general audience (it also doesn’t rely on cheap jump scares, which is much appreciated). It’s easy to see why it’s become a massive hit in South Korea, and why both the American and French remake rights have already been sold off (which, perhaps somewhat hypocritically, I’m very much looking forward to, because I’m curious to see the cultural differences between each version).
Quite simply, Train to Busan is a wild ride, and if you can find it playing near you, I definitely recommend giving it a whirl (unless you’re one of those people that just can’t handle subtitles, in which case, get out of my house).
Rating: ★★★★☆