Train to Busan

DIRECTOR: Sang-ho Yeon  LEAD CAST: Gong Yoo, Kim Su-an, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee  SCREENWRITERS: Sang-ho Yeon  PRODUCER: Lee Dong-ha MUSIC BY: Jang Young-gyu  FILM EDITOR: Yang Jin-mo  GENRE: Mystery & Thriller, Sci-Fi & Fantasy  CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lee Hyung-deok  PRODUCTON COMPANY: Redpeter Film  DISTRIBUTED BY: New Entertainment World  COUNTRY: South Korea  LANGUAGE: Korean  FILMING LOCATIONS: Dongdaegu Station, Daegu, Yeongnam, South Korea   RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes 

Technical assessment: 3.5

Moral assessment: 2.5

CINEMA rating: V18

Workaholic fund manager Seok-wu (Gong Yoo) is torn between urgent matters at work and the wish of her only daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) by his ex-wife to spend her birthday in Busan with her mother.  Su-an lives with her father Seok-wu but he rarely finds time for her. Realizing the growing disappointment of his daughter with his lapses as a father, he fulfills her birthday wish and together they take the high-speed train to Busan. Shortly before the train takes off, two strange passengers—a teenager apparently having a seizure and a terribly frightened dirty man—sneak onto the train. On discovery of both, the dirty man refuses to get out of the train while the teenager turns out to be zombie.  She attacks the train attendant and soon they multiply as they bite one after another inside the train. Also on board the train are Sang-wa (Ma Dong-seok), his pregnant wife Sung-kyu (Jung Yu-mi), a baseball team led by Young-Gook (Choi Woo-sik), and cheer leader Jin-Hee (Ahn So-Hee).

Tran to Busan has a well-developed plot that is easy to follow. It offers a new treatment of a zombie movie where characters are well built-up from the main ones to the zombies. Emotions are effectively brought out via good acting and characterization. Each one has their own highlights and transformation in the movie. The cinematography captures these and sets the tragic tone. The outdoor view of Korea and long shots likewise serve as a break from tension-filled scenes inside the train. The scenes are meaningful compositions, from the opening scene of a run over doe to a closing scene of survivors framed in a tunnel. Lights and sounds are equally powerful especially when used to trick the zombies, but the most remarkable is a child’s singing voice resounding in the nick of time. Overall, Train to Busan has a way above average technical qualities and viewers who are into this genre may find it’s worth the price of admission.

No matter how engaged at work, parents must still find time for their children, lest children in their young minds conclude that their parents are selfish, indifferent, and uncaring.  This is what pushed young Su-an to insist on the train ride to Busan.  While the ride turned out to be a horrible one, it also became an opportunity for father and daughter to see the good in each other.  Train to Busan likewise showed the innate goodness of a child towards others especially the needy—the elderly, the pregnant, the helpless.  The movie also demonstrated the various reactions of people to crisis, bringing out the worst and the best in humans. Train to Busan is almost two stressful hours, filled with tension, conflict, and violent and scary scenes of zombie chase and attacks that may be too much for children.  There is also one disturbing element that must be critically viewed for young and old alike—the suicide of one character towards the end.  The World Health Organization tags South Korea as having the second-highest number of suicides in the world.  Suicide may be a health, economic, or cultural issue in South Korea, but for the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country, suicide is believed to be a sin.  So, do guide your children when they see Train to Busan.