TRAIN TO BUSAN. (2016) DIRECTED BY YEON-SANG-HO. STARRING GONG YOO, KIM SU-AN, MA DONG-SEOK AND JUNG YU-MI. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Oh wow. I mean, wowee-wow-wow-wow...! I'd heard so many positive things about this zombie apocalypse horror film that I was expecting it to be good. What I wasn't expecting was for it to be great, and for me to be literally splattered from head-to-toe with its greatness for the two hours or so of its duration, to the point that I'll be cleaning up the 'brains, guts and heart' for weeks to come, haha.
Firstly, the title ain't no metaphor, and the film does exactly what it says on the tin. The action all takes place on the train from Seoul to Busan in South Korea, as a handsome young fund manager is taking his little girl to see her mum (they're divorced) just as a really inconvenient zombie apocalypse has broken out in all the major cities in the country. Tsk, tsk. Pesky apocalypse. I bet mine will come just as I've sat down to a good film with a nice cup of tea.
Anyway, Seok-woo is our cute-as-a-button fund manager, and his deal is that he's always put work and getting to the top in business ahead of his wife and child. When the zombie virus breaks out on their train, his job goes out the window as the real business in hand becomes that of basic bloody survival.
To this end, he and his daughter hook up with a much tougher working-class man called Sang-hwa and his lovely pregnant wife who's carrying a baby girl. Both men just want to look out for their womenfolk and get them first of all into a safer, zombie-free carriage (I heard you have to pre-book these online now...!) and, overall, to the city of Busan where they hope they'll all be safe.
Sang-hwa is a big, no-nonsense, plain-speaking blunt man who clearly adores his pregnant wife. That scene where he stands guard outside the toilet door while she has one of those frequent and flood-like 'maternity' wees just nearly broke my heart, it was so sweet.
I love the way too that Sang-hwa takes the piss out of Seok-woo's sissy, money-grabbing job and not-so-affectionately nicknames the other man 'Arsehole' for much of the film. The life-and-death situation they're in, however, forces the two men to work together.
Seok-woo proves that he can be relied on in a crisis, and Sang-hwa, by far my favourite character, reveals a f***ing amazingly buff, ripped body under his blue jacket. His magnificent muscles turn out to be the little group's secret weapon as they pow, biff and kablamo their way through the rabid zombies with the help of a baseball bat-wielding schoolboy trying to reach his cheerleader girlfriend in another carriage. Someone clearly doesn't wanna die with his virginity intact, heh-heh-heh.
I love the nice kindly train driver as well, and the fact that money-mad Seok-woo gets to see what he's well on the way to turning into in the form of another character in the film. It's not too late for Seok-woo to change his materialistic Scrooge-like ways, however.
After all, it's as much a film about redemption and self-sacrifice as it is about zombies chomping noisily and messily on people's necks. It's a wonder, in this day and age when there have been books written about every subject under the sun, that no-one's thought to pen one on Zombie Etiquette. That's my idea, by the way, so don't steal it, right? Patent pending!
The film's been compared to other zombie films such as THE RAID, 28 DAYS LATER and WORLD WAR Z, but it also reminds me of other big-budget disaster movies such as THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and James Cameron's TITANIC.
These films all follow their own formula, similar to TRAIN TO BUSAN. We know that the people who are all for saving their own skins and no-one else's will get their grisly, fiery or watery come-uppance. We also know that some people will sacrifice their own lives to save others. There's only been one instance in which such self-sacrifice was patently unnecessary. I'll only say one thing:
'There was room on that raft for the two of youse...!'
You guys know who I mean, right? The film also reminds me of that excellent Alien Apocalypse movie, WAR OF THE WORLDS, in which Tom Cruise is trying to get a screechy Dakota Fanning and her surly, unco-operative teenage brother to his ex-wife's house across town while tripod-style extra-terrestrials stalk America, marmalising any humans that fall into their cold iron clutches.
The idea of the train that can't stop anywhere because of its toxic cargo or the dodginess of its destination is a terrifying one. It's like a ship that's not allowed to dock anywhere because of an on-board outbreak of the plague or an aircraft that can't land for whatever- or similar- reasons. I'm reminded here of Stephen King's brilliant novella and mini-series, THE LANGOLIERS.
Any world pandemic film will have a similar theme going on and you can't go wrong with it because it taps directly into peoples' greatest and most deep-seated fears. As in, could this stuff really happen...? Who knows? Sadly, nothing bad seems impossible these days.
Anyway, the marvellous TRAIN TO BUSAN, which I genuinely feel deserves all the praise that's been heaped upon it, is out on Digital HD on 20th February 2017, and on DVD, Blu-Ray and VOD on 27th February 2017.
This comes courtesy of STUDIOCANAL and FETCH ENTERTAINMENT and it has as an extra feature a highly entertaining behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the film. Don't watch it if you only want to retain the memories of the horror, chaos and terrifying could-this-really-happen? feeling of the film, though. There's way too much levity in it...!
By the way, I loved the way that the zombies were virtually disabled whenever the train to Busan went through tunnels, sometimes for long periods at a time. To finish, I've compiled a short list, purely for your amusement, of some fun activities you could engage in while the zombies are thus discombobulated:
1. Stage a short medley of Gilbert and Sullivan tunes while wearing full period costume.
2. Have sex with an attractive fellow traveller, after checking first for signs of infection.
3. Break up with same, maybe by pretending to have a spouse or significant other back in the non-zombie-apocalypse universe. If pushed, say you're ninety-nine percent sure you have an undiagnosed sexually transmitted disease. That oughta do it...!
4. Write a letter to a long-neglected pen-pal or aged relative. They'll be delighted to hear from you, unless it's the rich uncle you tried to get the doctors to pull the plug on back in '98.
5. If female, check your breasts for any irregularities. If male, perform same for testicles. You'd be surprised how little time you have for this simple life-saving activity in a non-zombie-apocalypse world.
6. Enact a game of charades with your fellow travellers. Under the circumstances, leave out NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and other zombie-related films.
7. Compare the films of Herzog to those of Kurosawa.
8. Swap contact details with your fellow travellers and make plans to keep in touch after the zombie-apocalypse. This could be a fun way to widen your social circle.
9. Start a 'Tunnel' diary and encourage your fellow travellers to do likewise. Think how much enjoyment you'll get out of re-reading these entries in later years.
10. Have sex again. It's a long ride, goddammit...!
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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