Movie Review: Train to Busan

Directed by Sang-ho Yeon, 2016
IMDb listing

Pros: great acting, fast paced, tense

Cons:

Passengers on a train from Seoul to Busan try to survive a zombie outbreak.

This is a fantastic horror movie. The acting is spot on with a good mixture of people you’re rooting for and a few you’re hoping die quickly. There’s very little introduction to the main group of initial survivors on the train, but among them are a pregnant woman, two older women, several high school baseball players, and a number of business men.

The film focuses on two principle characters: a father and daughter heading to Busan for the girl’s birthday. While he loves his daughter the father is a distant figure in her life, working long hours and hardly aware of what she’s up to. As the movie progresses, so does his relationship with his daughter and the world at large.

The cinematography is excellent. There’s a wonderful shot when the zombie first infect the train and people are starting to realize something is wrong when the camera zooms in on one zombie and then follows it in a close-up as it starts attacking people. With pulse pounding music it’s a terrifying scene, showing the chaos of infection and confusion.

The movie is hyper focused on the train but you do get occasional glimpses of what’s happening in the cities they pass, through news broadcasts, texts, phone calls and scenery as the train passes.

If you haven’t see this and enjoy zombie movies, I highly recommend it.