Seoul Station (2016)

By the mid-2010s, South Korean cinema had well and truly announced itself to international audiences, and director Yeon Sang-ho was at the centre of that moment. His live-action zombie thriller Train to Busan landed in 2016 to widespread acclaim, the kind of film that gets people who rarely bother with subtitles actively recommending it to friends. What many viewers may not have realised at the time is that Yeon had released a companion piece the very same year, one that sat in the shadow of that breakout hit almost immediately. Seoul Station, produced by Studio Dadashow, Next Entertainment World and Myung Films, is an animated prequel running just over 90 minutes, and it plants its flag firmly in the hours before the chaos of Train to Busan begins to unfold, following a scattered group of survivors as a zombie outbreak tears through the streets and transit infrastructure of central Seoul.

Yeon Sang-ho is an interesting figure in this respect. Before turning to live-action features, he built his career as an animator, and Seoul Station sits closer to that earlier body of work in both form and tone. The film is drawn in a style that is polished but unremarkable, and it carries a noticeably darker, more socially charged atmosphere than its live-action counterpart, using the zombie premise to say something pointed about homelessness and urban neglect in South Korea. The voice cast includes Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung, Lee Joon, Kim Jae-rok and Jang Hyuk-jin, all lending their performances to characters caught up in the mayhem across a single, desperate night. If you have already read the piece on Peninsula, the 2020 follow-up Yeon directed, you will have some sense of how the director has handled the expanding mythology around this world, for better or worse.

As animated horror goes, Seoul Station occupies a reasonably rare niche. Adult animation with genuine genre weight is still something of an acquired taste in Western markets, though South Korean audiences have had a longer relationship with the form. It is worth comparing the film against other animated works that push boundaries in different ways, such as Josep, which uses the medium to tackle heavy historical subject matter, or even the considerably lighter Trolls, just to appreciate the sheer range animation can cover. Seoul Station sits at a very different end of that spectrum, aiming squarely at a mature, horror-literate audience already familiar with the world it belongs to.

Train to Busan is great. This animated prequel is not. It's weird. Train to Busan is stuck in this sandwich with both prequel and sequel feeling rather slow and lacklustre by comparison

I think that sandwich comparison really does say it all. Train to Busan works so well in part because it is tight, propulsive and genuinely cares about its characters under pressure. When you approach Seoul Station hoping for more of the same, the pacing and the emotional stakes feel like they are operating at a lower temperature, and the animated format, rather than adding something fresh, just highlights the gap. It is a bit of a shame, because the social commentary buried in here is worth something, and Yeon clearly had a point to make. It just gets lost somewhere between the premise and the execution. Sometimes a prequel really is best left imagined rather than seen.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2016  | Watched: 2025-07-15

View on Letterboxd →

Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Seoul Station (2016) on YouTube

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: STUDIOCANAL PRESENTS Apple TV Channel · Studiocanal Presents Amazon Channel
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Night Flight Plus · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More from Yeon Sang-ho: Peninsula (2020) · Train to Busan (2016)
More from South Korea: Memories of Murder (2003) · Peninsula (2020) · Lost in Starlight (2025) · The Handmaiden (2016)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)