Train To Busan — Train To Busan(DVD)
The 2016 film is the live action directorial debut from Sang-ho Yeon- who in the past has been more involved with animated films & screenwriting. It tells of fund manager Seok Woo( played by Yoo Gong), and his young daughter(played by Soo-an Kim) as they take a train trip to see his estranged wife in Busen. Fairly soon after the journey starts off a Zombie outbreak happens, and one of the infected gets onto their train. For the next two hours the films tells the pacey & often emotionally fraught story of the pairs endeavour to survive, and the fellow passengers they encounter.
As mentioned at the beginning of the review this is very much a more action & emotional take on the Zombie genre, focusing in on the characters themselves & how they deal with their predicament. Sure we have Zombies- who are of the fast 28 Days Later variety, but there is little in the way of gore or showy zombie deaths on display here. So if your after a more bloody & brutal Zombie film, then Train To Busan is not really for you.
But if you enjoy tense & action packed cinema that has an emotional heart & an effective line in character development, you will really enjoy what’s on offer here.
The thing that really sells & makes the film, and is the centre of the films appeal, is the acting, which pretty much through-out top notch. Soo-an Kim does a amazing job as the daughter, really showing a great & very believable range for an actor so young. Also Yoo Gong as the father mangers to portray brilliantly the shift from a self obsessed business man, to a caring father figure.
I won’t go onto detail the plot too much more, as it’s really a film you have to see fairly blind. So you get the most out of the action set pieces, emotional twists & turns, and the general flow of the film. But the whole thing pulled me in from the start, not letting me go until the fairly surprising ending.
Extra wise on the DVD you get a seventeen minute making-of. The first few minutes of Seoul Station- which is the full length animated pre-sequel to Train To Busan, and a trailer too. Seoul Station certainly looks intriguing; at like Train To Busan it seemingly follows a more character based setting.
When I first became aware of Train To Busan there seemed to be a lot of praise & hype surrounding it- so I had quite high expectations going into the film. And I must that I came away very impressed & wholly taken by the film. So if you are after a well-made & well-acted apocalyptic film, that’s high on emotion & action Train To Busan is most certainly for you.