Train to Busan (2016)

Rush hour on the London Underground. That's the image that kept flashing through my mind watching this. Packed carriages, nowhere to run, strangers pressed against you whether you like it or not. Now add zombies. Brilliant. Terrifying. Let's go.

I caught Train to Busan when it first came out and I was genuinely, pleasantly surprised by it. Korean cinema has a rhythm that Western audiences don't always have patience for, that measured, deliberate build before the storm arrives. This is no different. The first act takes its time, establishing characters and relationships aboard a high-speed train from Seoul to Busan, and if you're not familiar with that slower Korean pacing it might test you slightly. Stick with it. Because when this thing kicks in, it really kicks in. Full-throttle, white-knuckle, barely a breath from start to finish.

The zombies themselves deserve a mention because they're genuinely unsettling in a way a lot of modern zombie offerings aren't. It's the physicality of them. The way they snap and contort their bodies, throwing their heads back as they move, all juddering limbs and wrong angles. There's something deeply wrong-looking about it and that wrongness gets under your skin far more effectively than your standard shambling horde ever could. They feel feral and broken and relentless.

Here's where I have to be honest about one thing that nagged at me though, because I'm a stickler for zombie rules. The film establishes that these creatures have absolutely zero short-term memory. Block their line of sight for a second and they've already forgotten you exist. Which is a fun and creative rule, fair enough. But if you follow that logic to its conclusion, you could technically just leg it around a corner, crouch behind a bin, and they'd lose you entirely. I kept turning that over in my head during the more tense sequences. It doesn't ruin the film at all, but it does slightly suspend disbelief when you're thinking about it too hard. Which I clearly was.

What grounds the whole thing emotionally is the big fella. Without question the standout performance and the heart of the film. He's a physical presence in every sense, a proper unit who you'd absolutely want in your corner during a zombie apocalypse, but the film smartly makes him warm and vulnerable too. And when he gets bitten and you see the realisation wash over him, shouting his unborn child's name as the infection takes hold, I won't pretend that didn't hit me properly hard. That moment earns every bit of weight it carries. A real tearjerker, and I'm not ashamed to say it.

The ending lands where you probably think it's going to land. That's the one slight disappointment. For a film that does so much right, the conclusion feels a touch too telegraphed, a little too neat in its tragedy if that makes sense. You can see it coming from a couple of carriages away. But by the time you get there you've been so thoroughly worked over by everything preceding it that you'll likely forgive it.

If this is your entry point into Korean genre filmmaking, brilliant choice. And if you want to go deeper into that world, I've also reviewed Memories of Murder (2003), which shows just how masterfully Korean cinema can blend tone and tension. Interestingly, the animated prequel Seoul Station (2016) was released the same year and covers the early outbreak, so it's well worth pairing the two if you want the full picture. And if you're wondering whether the follow-up is worth your time, I've covered Peninsula (2020) too, though that's a very different beast.

Four stars. Enormously enjoyable, creatively crafted, and it earns that gut-punch emotional core fair and square. One minor quibble about zombie logic and a predictable finale aside, this is exactly what a great genre film should be.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 2016  | Watched: 2025-04-06

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