Review of Train to Busan (2016) by Tiff K — 07 Sep 2016

I went in the theatre with medium expectations. Everyone was talking about it and giving it 5 stars but after seeing George Romero's, Danny Boyle's, AMC's zombie movies and shows, I thought that there couldn't be anything new to the zombie film universe. We've had drama, comedy, romance (remember the Rome and Juliet spinoff?) and of course horror already, what's there left?

Well plenty according to Director Sang-ho Yeon. I should not have underestimated the power of Asian cinematography and horror and of course, Korean films because Korea was the one that gave us Old Boy, The Host, A Tale of Two Sisters, etc etc etc. I want to applaud Sang-ho Yeon's work in Train To Busan because he just revived a saturated genre with his mastery with scenery, timing, suspense and cinematography. There were some golden shots in this film especially on that first stopover which involves falling zombies, glass panes and stairs. Then we have the heart-stopping and heart-wrenching last 30 minutes of the film. He was able to do so much with his characters and their development and survival in such a constricted space (literally, because the last few scenes involved a passage/way that can only fit 1 person at a time). He worked so well with his cinematography because unlike the huge wide angle view that we're so used to panning the whole field with zombies, we get REALLY CLOSE to the zombies and their victims. And it isn't just a one second close up. Nope. It felt like you were running with the characters and solving their problems with enough screen time with zombies and the main characters. The pacing was great!

They do have a LOT of character development and gave our characters enough depth to care about them. No easy feat for this number of characters in such a short amount of time. I would also like to commend the actress of the daughter in the film. You are so precious Kim Su-An who coincidentally has the same name as her character. Watch out for this little young lady in the future because she's gonna be big. Some though may find the story too sappy, too melodramatic at times but hey, it's Korea. They're the king of soaps and the actors and actresses all starred in soaps! Nothing too extreme so I thought that the drama unfolded was just right.

I thoroughly enjoyed Train to Busan. It isn't exactly horrifying or scary but it sure makes you panic and stress out because you're in the same train as these guys. Also makes you now wonder how effective your country's transport lines are, in the case of a zombie apocalypse.