Post by xystophoros on Apr 5, 2017 9:55:22 GMT
Train to Busan is a South Korean film about a workaholic dad who's separated from his wife, and his young daughter, who wants to see her mother on her birthday.
The father, Seok-woo, reluctantly shifts a meeting around so he can bring his daughter, Soo-an, to her mother's house in Busan. It's a 5-hour round trip by train from Seoul, and Seok-woo tells his assistant he plans to be back in the office by late noon.
No sooner do Seok-woo and Soo-an take their seats than things start to go south in the Seoul train station -- as the train pulls out, little Soo-an sees a man standing on the platform, and then a flash of another man leaping on him like an animal. Soon people are hearing reports of chaos in Seoul, then chaos across the nation, as the passengers start to get calls and text messages from panicked relatives and friends.
No one really believes the reports until videos start popping up online, and then it becomes apparent something is wrong in one of the train cars -- a sickly passenger had run onto the train just before the door closed, and locked herself in a bathroom. When a female rail employee finds the convulsing woman she radios for help. But the woman is in the throes of a horrible fever, she turns...and we all know what happens next.
First, it's important to note these are "28 Days Later" style zombies -- fast and strong, as opposed to the lumbering retards of a Romero flick or The Walking Dead. Genre purists get their panties in a bunch over classifying the former as true zombies, but no one else cares. And really, there's more tension when they're a greater threat. When writers and directors know how to use that, like they did in Train to Busan, the results are great. These are not zombies that turn over the course of several hours or more. Like the 28 Days/Weeks infected, bite wounds cause people to turn quickly. Some turn in less than a minute, some turn in 2 or 3 minutes, but never more than that.
It's interesting to see a film from a culture that doesn't portray men, or particular dads, as dopey morons or incompetents. Both the main character and the other male lead, a burly dude with a pregnant wife, fight tooth and nail to keep daughter and wife alive. They're not supermen. They don't have video game moves or special powers -- they're just regular guys trying desperately to protect their loved ones.
Another theme the movie explores is that it's just as often selfishness, or pure stupidity, that gets people killed. It's like a drowning man pulling his would-be rescuer down with him. Or someone who'd gladly get 10 people killed if it means they get to live. If you're on a train car and four people are beating on the door, insisting they're not infected, do you let them in or do you leave them to the zombies?
Overall I'd give this a big thumbs up and say without reservation it's easily the best zombie movie I've seen in years. For a genre that's enjoyed a major renaissance, and even stabs at "prestige" offerings with A-list actors (World War Z), there really haven't been new zombie movies that hit the spot the way early Romero films -- or even the 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake -- have in the past. Train to Busan is right up there with them.
The father, Seok-woo, reluctantly shifts a meeting around so he can bring his daughter, Soo-an, to her mother's house in Busan. It's a 5-hour round trip by train from Seoul, and Seok-woo tells his assistant he plans to be back in the office by late noon.
No sooner do Seok-woo and Soo-an take their seats than things start to go south in the Seoul train station -- as the train pulls out, little Soo-an sees a man standing on the platform, and then a flash of another man leaping on him like an animal. Soon people are hearing reports of chaos in Seoul, then chaos across the nation, as the passengers start to get calls and text messages from panicked relatives and friends.
No one really believes the reports until videos start popping up online, and then it becomes apparent something is wrong in one of the train cars -- a sickly passenger had run onto the train just before the door closed, and locked herself in a bathroom. When a female rail employee finds the convulsing woman she radios for help. But the woman is in the throes of a horrible fever, she turns...and we all know what happens next.
First, it's important to note these are "28 Days Later" style zombies -- fast and strong, as opposed to the lumbering retards of a Romero flick or The Walking Dead. Genre purists get their panties in a bunch over classifying the former as true zombies, but no one else cares. And really, there's more tension when they're a greater threat. When writers and directors know how to use that, like they did in Train to Busan, the results are great. These are not zombies that turn over the course of several hours or more. Like the 28 Days/Weeks infected, bite wounds cause people to turn quickly. Some turn in less than a minute, some turn in 2 or 3 minutes, but never more than that.
It's interesting to see a film from a culture that doesn't portray men, or particular dads, as dopey morons or incompetents. Both the main character and the other male lead, a burly dude with a pregnant wife, fight tooth and nail to keep daughter and wife alive. They're not supermen. They don't have video game moves or special powers -- they're just regular guys trying desperately to protect their loved ones.
Another theme the movie explores is that it's just as often selfishness, or pure stupidity, that gets people killed. It's like a drowning man pulling his would-be rescuer down with him. Or someone who'd gladly get 10 people killed if it means they get to live. If you're on a train car and four people are beating on the door, insisting they're not infected, do you let them in or do you leave them to the zombies?
Overall I'd give this a big thumbs up and say without reservation it's easily the best zombie movie I've seen in years. For a genre that's enjoyed a major renaissance, and even stabs at "prestige" offerings with A-list actors (World War Z), there really haven't been new zombie movies that hit the spot the way early Romero films -- or even the 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake -- have in the past. Train to Busan is right up there with them.