Train to Busan (2016)
Kicking off this mini zombie marathon is Train to Busan, set in south Korea a group of commuters are in for the ride from hell. Who else likes to guess who's going to get it first? Our protagonist is a man (Seok-Woo played by Yoo Gong) who is the father of a young girl called Su-An (played by Su-An Kim). After missing her music recital, and buying her a Wii for her birthday when she already had one (yeah, cheers dad!), Su-An is adement she's getting on the train the next day to see her mum on her birthday. Sufficiently guilt tripped, dad and Su-An climb aboard and the train pulls away.
Our team of survivors starts out with dad and Su-An, a pregnant lady (we'll call her June), and her husband. Our resident bad guy, intent on sacrificing anyone to save his own skin, (grumpy old git man), a team of baseball players and their cheerleader and two elderly sisters. Not forgetting homeless man, train driver and conductor bringing up the numbers.
As with many zombie films, you're subjected to many small, isolated incidents at the beginning of the film, you know, ash raining from the sky, fire engines hurtling by and that deer you just ran over coming back to life. That sort of thing. Su-An sees a guy getting rugby tackled by a zombie and when she notices her dad is asleep decides now is the perfect time for a toilet break. Horror Movie Mistakes 101 never go anywhere alone in the event of a zombie outbreak.
The authorities have informed the train to stop at the next station, but the only thing awaiting them are hoards of zombies hungry for brunch, they steam right through and the survivors are separated in the chaos having to manoeuvre through three carriages crawling with the undead. Turns out the zombies can't see in the dark,and the survivors use the long tunnels to their advantage, fighting their way through with duct tape clad arms, baseball bats and a police riot shield. The scene where they're crawling across the overhead storage rail is particularly nail biting. One at a time please!
June's husband heroically sacrifices himself, while dad, Su-An, June and one of the elderly sisters make it inside to a less than welcoming gang of survivors lead by grumpy git himself. They are subsequently forced into the vestibule at grumpy's request, but one elderly sister, seeing that her sibling is now zombie kill decides they'll be none of this stupidity on her watch and lets in the zombies bringing down all but grumpy in their path. It's a bloodbath from start to finish. The baseball team are down to just one and the cheerleader by this point. Turns out their training hadn't reached what to do in the even of apocalypse. After all her complaining, and screaming it isn't all that sad to see the cheerleader get it, along with her boyfriend who basically cries and lets her eat him. Go Tigers!
The train is forced to make an emergency stop because of debris on the tracks, their only choice being to raid the handy station they are near for another train to Busan. I'd be writing a letter of complaint by this point, I'm late for work and covered in blood. I want my money back! Out of nowhere comes a runaway train, totally ablaze that traps dad, June, Su-An and the homeless man who bravely sacrifices himself to let the other three get away (technically four since June is pregnant). Meanwhile grumpy sacrifices the train driver who becomes zombie-chow after leaping from the moving carriage to save grumpy's sorry ass.
Dad, June and Su-An manage to get a grip on the speeding train with a clusterfuck of zombies barrelling over one another, clinging on like shoppers to the sale rack. It's happy hour at the station and they're hungry! After they manage to rid themselves of the hoard they turn to see grumpy man, and yep, you guessed it, he's a zombie. Dun duh DUUUUN! In the brawl, dad manages to get himself bitten, and manages to finally give grumpy man what was coming to him and throw him over the side of the train which is still steaming ahead.
It was actually genuinely sad to watch Seok-Woo tell June (Seong-Kyeong played by Yu-Mi Yung) to pull the brake on the train only when it is safe and Su-An scream for her dad. He walks to the bvack of the train remembered her birth in a nice flashback before falling gracefully to his own demise. Only Su-An and June and the baby remain after what was probably more like a rollercoaster than a gentile commute to work and enter the dark tunnel, bodies strewn everywhere.
Su-An sings the song from the recital her dad missed as they approach the military and we're left to assume that they all lived happily ever after. It was a total nail biter from start to finish. They story was plausible (if not a little predictable in parts), the zombies were fast and the virus extremely fast acting. Definitely had a hint of 28 Days Later with it's large, open and empty spaces and agile zombies , but slightly less rage. Minimal, but well used CGI (like the deer for example) and a great overall sound and visual experience. I really enjoyed how tense this film was, and being able to tolerate subtitled movies I often enjoy experiencing the culture and effect other languages have on my viewing experience. Good solid plot, very believable characters, another different take on this well loved genre.
8 zombie heads out of 10.
Check out part 2 here!
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