Train to Busan: One of the Best Zombie Movies Ever Made

Train to Busan is an emotional zombie movie that gets an enormous amount right

It was time for me to rewatch Train to Busan again, especially with the 4K release upcoming.

Plot

While a zombie virus breaks out in South Korea, passengers struggle to survive on the train from Seoul to Busan.

Good Points

• Excellent use of the train setting.

• Fast zombies make every encounter feel genuinely threatening.

• Great balance of action, tension, horror, humour and emotion.

• Some proper emotion is invoked.

• Large-scale zombie sequences are visually impressive.

• Effective social commentary.

Bad Points

• A few character decisions require you to accept some movie logic.

My Thoughts on Train to Busan

Train to Busan is damn good

I really liked Train to Busan the first few times I watched it, and now rewatching it again, I am not sure I have ever loved it more than I do right now, because the movie does almost everything I want a zombie movie to do - itt’s violent, tense, funny in places, sad in others, and most importanlty, it never feels like a film that is simply going through the motions, or checking off boxes.

I’ve seen enough zombie movies where the whole thing eventually becomes people wandering around looking miserable while somebody bangs on a door for twenty minutes, before somebody gets bitten, everybody argues about it, and we’re back to the same thing again.

Train to Busan has some familiar ingredients, obviously, but it uses them properly, where it keeps giving the characters problems to deal with, and you really do end up caring about whether they managed to get through them.

You will end up ttense during the big attacks, irritated with some of the characters, and no doubt will feel a bit sad at times, too, and that’s a pretty good result for a movie about people being chased around by zombies, no?

The train is a great location

That sounds like such a simple thing to say, but it’s so true, a train is a fantastic setting for this type of movie - it’s cramped, it’s narrow, and once things start going wrong, there aren’t many places to go, and the film gets a lot of mileage out of it.

The characters can’t just run away in whichever direction they want either, they have to work out what’s happening in the next carriage and decide whether moving is actually worth the risk, so the zombies feel like an actual problem rather than something that’s simply thrown at the characters, while a train also means everyone is packed in together, fighting for space.

And once the zombies start filling those carriages, things get ugly very quickly, and here, the zombies are fast, really fast, and I personally much prefer this kind of zombie to the slow-moving variety because it makes every encounter feel that much more dangerous, plus you get some great shots of huge numbers of them packed together, which makes for some brilliant imagery.

The film’s social commentary

Train To Busan isn’t just about zombies though, because it also has something to say about wealth, class and selfishness, particularly the way people behave when they are frightened - people who would normally never interact with each other are forced into the same situation, and suddenly all the usual social boundaries become much less important, or, in some cases, people become even more determined to protect their own little group.

It also isn’t one of those films where every character suddenly starts explaining the director’s message to you, because you do, or should, see what the movie is getting at simply by watching the way people behave.

The movie lets you make your own judgment on them.

It gets emotional too

I know a film should make you care about the characters, but many do not as we all know, but Train To Busan really does make you give a shit, and a big part of why is because it gives the important relationships enough time to actually develop.

The father and daughter relationship is obviously central, and I thought it worked extremely well because it isn’t perfect, where the father has clearly spent too much time focused on other parts of his life, and his relationship with his daughter has suffered because of it, so you end up watching a relationship change under extreme pressure.

The movie also earns it, so when somebody is in danger, you will care, when somebody makes a sacrifice, it will mean something, and when a character makes a horrible decision, you will get angry. (Maybe/Probably).

The film can also be quite cruel with the characters as well, and I don’t mean that as a criticism, as it means the deaths have the appropriate emotional effect, and if here is one thing I always want from a film like this, I want it to make me feel something.

Train to Busan managed that.

The action is very entertaining

The action scenes are excellent, featuring some big zombie sequences, but I particulary like that the characters don’t simply solve everything by beating the hell out of the infected, as they actually have to be smart about it, and decide on the next move like it’s a game of chess, thinking two or three moves ahead.

There are also some great moments where the film suddenly ramps everything up, where things can be relatively quiet and then, within seconds, you’ve got a mass of zombies coming through a carriage.

Train to Busan was also Yeon Sang-ho’s first live-action feature, as before this, he was known for animated films, including The King of Pigs and The Fake, both of which dealt with darker subjects and social issues, and he clearly brought some of those interests into Train to Busan, particularly the film’s ideas about class and how people treat each other.

There was also a follow-up, Peninsula, released in 2020, although that movie takes things in a very different direction, as well as an animated prequel titled Seoul Station, which was released less than a month after the original film.

But the first is normally the best, and in this case, it not only is, but is also one of the best zombie films ever made.

Final Thoughts

Not sure what else to add, it’s a damn good movie on so many levels, that has a bit of everything thrown in.

Could I trust someone who doesn’t like this movie?

Probably not. ;)

Now to wait for the next film from Yeon Sang-ho - Colony!

Film Credits

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho

Written by Park Joo-suk

Produced by Lee Dong-ha

Starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee amd Kim Eui-sung

Cinematography by Lee Hyung-deok

Edited by Yang Jin-mo

Music by Jang Young-gyu

Running time - 118 minutes

More Film Posts