Train to Busan (2016)
★★★★ — Train to Busan (2016)
Yeon Sang-ho had built his reputation in South Korea as an animation director (his features The King of Pigs and The Fake were dark, socially abrasive works that earned festival attention) before making the jump to live action with this, his debut in that format. Released in the summer of 2016, Train to Busan arrived during a particularly fertile period for Korean genre cinema and became a genuine breakout, grossing over $87 million worldwide against a budget of around $8.5 million. It earned a slot in the Cannes Midnight Screenings programme, a rare honour for a Korean genre picture. A companion animated prequel, Seoul Station, was released the same year, and a Korean-language sequel, Peninsula, followed in 2020.
Rush hour on the London Underground. I watched Train to Busan when it first released and I was pleasantly surprised. It's got a bit of a slow build, typical for Korean Cinema but once it kicks in it's a full-throttle white-knuckle ride. The zombies are creepy af with the way they snap their bodies and throw their heads back as they run. They're relentless but they have absolutely zero short term memory so seemingly all you need to do is shield their view for a second and they immediately forget where you are, which does suspend disbelief just a bit. If this logic is to be followed then if they were chasing you then you could just run around a corner and hide and they'd lose you but then again I'm a stickler for 'zombie rules'. The big fella is the star of the show in my opinion and it was a real tearjerker moment when he was bitten and started shouting his unborn child's name. The ending was somewhat predictable but overall I'd give this a 4* as very enjoyable.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2016 | Watched: 2025-04-06
Where to watch (UK)
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