Train to Busan is the movie that will revive the zombie genre. It broke box office records across South Korea this summer and I managed to catch a preview of it at the Korean Film Festival prior to its general release in the UK at the end of October. Don’t be put off by people labelling it ‘Zombies on a Plane’ this film is one of my top movies of the year

The director Sang-ho Yuon

A Train to Busan is directed by relatively new director Sang-ho Yeon who is also know for directing the Korean anime movie The King of Pigs

The Movie

Once that locomotion starts in Train to Busan it doesn’t stop in this horror romp, which can be described as a sort of Snowpiercer meets World War Z, you’ll be on the edge of your seat until those final credits roll. The trills, chills, laughs and cries are perfectly balanced throughout this movie

Train to Busan follows our hero Seok Woo a businessman and his young daughter S-an as they take a train to Busan to visit his estranged wife. One of the passengers on the train is infected with a zombie virus that has spread across the country and quickly spreads through the train. What ensues is that band of followers that includes a man & his pregnant wife, a teenage baseball team, a homeless man, some pensioners and a ruthless business man joining Seok Woo and his daughter in this battle for survival

The zombies in Train to Busan are not your typical slow moving The Walking Dead type zombies and are more reminiscent of the fast running 28 Days Later / World War Z zombie. This leads to some very intense viewing – I found myself not breathing at the scenes of our protagonists trying to escape from hordes of running zombies. There are also moments of levity – underneath the story of the zombie apocalypse is a tale of family, love as well as strong tale of social injustice as well as many laughs throughout

In conclusion

Train to Busan will forever go down as one of the best zombies of recent years – definitely catch it in the cinema before its eventual US remake comes out which is already in pre-production

Tendai