#5 - Train to Busan (2016)

Review by Andrew David Jackson (MUKSRH)

[Figure 1: Train to Busan Theatrical Poster]

Train to Busan proved to be a massive hit in South Korea when released in 2016, drawing a staggering 11 million spectators in a country of just over 51 million. It was also remarkably profitable overseas, becoming the best-performing Korean movie (of the time) in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, and it was a cult favourite in North America and Europe. The film is about blood-crazed zombies biting chunks out of the living, which raises an important question. What is it about the film that drew a fifth of the South Korean population to see it?

‘Multiple-address strategy’ is a phrase that researchers like Chris Howard have used to account for the phenomenal success of South Korean films since the 2000s. Howard argues that South Korean genre filmmakers frequently target their film storylines so effectively that elements of the narrative appeal to different audiences. Howard’s ideas apply very well to Train to Busan – since it has elements of action, suspense, horror, melodrama, social commentary, political nationalism and even historical references. In other words, the movie has something that will appeal to virtually any audience. The film tells the story of a single father, Seok-woo (played by heartthrob Gong Yoo, star of Ttokkebbi- Guardian – the Lonely and the Great God), who is addicted to his job as a fund manager and, as a result, is making a poor show of raising a young daughter, Su-an. To smooth out their relationship, Seok-woo agrees to take Su-an on a train trip to Busan (located on the southern coast of the Peninsula). This is the moment all the action begins. Unbeknownst to daughter and dad, an outbreak of an unidentified virus has spread from livestock to humans, turning ordinary law-abiding South Koreans into zombies who proceed to attack other people. An infected passenger boards the train in Seoul, and with no way of escaping the enclosed spaces, pretty soon, most of the train becomes zombies. The rest of the film shows how the surviving passengers, including Seok-woo and Su-an, attempt to fend off the zombies until the train can reach the safety of the only uninfected region of the country: Busan (Pusan). Train to Busan borrows much from previous examples of the genre; it adopts the sprinting zombies of the 28 Days Later cycle instead of the lurching monsters of George A. Romero’s pictures. The movie also includes the horrific zombie mountains of World War Z as the undead cooperate to attack the living.

[Figure 2: Yoon Sang-hwa (Ma Dong-seok) and Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) prepare to battle the zombies (screenshot)]

However, the film’s appeal lies in what many other horror films fail to achieve. Train to Busan boasts a rich array of characters and successfully brings out individual personalities and reveals some of the underlying social tensions that afflict South Korean society. Perhaps the most rounded character is the foul-mouthed Yoon Sang-hwa (played by Ma Dong-seok), a man-mountain of a gangster besotted with his heavily pregnant wife, whom he resolves to get to Busan alive whatever it takes. Sang-hwa and Seok-woo (figure 2) instantly dislike each other, but they are forced to cooperate to fend off the zombie hordes. In an interesting reversal of standard cinematic tropes, it is the gangster Sang-hwa who teaches the respectable Seok-woo about social responsibility and the importance of family life over work-life. These moral messages underline the political sub-text of the movie that social breakdown (as exemplified by the zombie outbreak) results from the loss of those collective bonds that bound Korean society together and that have become loosened as a result of an unhealthy lust for wealth and success. In another interesting reversal, it is not the zombies who are portrayed as the main villains; it is the unrepentant businessman (played by Kim Eui-sung) who causes the most destruction. Unlike your average horror, the film has many tear-jerking moments: the enforced separation of the twin sisters on the train, the sacrifice of the gangster Sang-hwa, and the final sequence is sure to move even the most seasoned of horror fans. One other fascinating element of the film lies in its historical references to the 1950-1953 Korean War. The film’s opening includes a government announcement about social unrest, warning the capital’s residents not to flee. There is nothing unusual in this, except the wording of the proclamation is identical to one made by the South Korean President Syngman Rhee following the North Korean invasion of June 25, 1950. Rhee, of course, advised Koreans to remain in the capital, while he and his cabinet fled the communist forces. The route taken by the train towards Busan is the identical route taken by the fleeing Rhee government in 1950. When the train stops in Taejon, it is (zombified) soldiers who attack the train passengers, reflecting a tragic feature of the 1950 conflict in which combatants killed civilians – especially those suspected of leftist allegiances. The film’s final sequence in the tunnel makes a direct visual reference to the Korean War film A Little Pond (Chageun yeonmot, 2009, Lee Sang-woo) about the Korean War massacre of civilians by US troops. Finally, Busan in the film, as it did in the Korean War, offered sanctuary for civilians fleeing the invaders. Do these historical references imply that North Koreans were or are blood-drinking savages? I don’t think so. I think the references, whether deliberate or not, are clear evidence of the ongoing, tragic legacy of the 1950-1953 conflict and the continuing impact on the cultural memory of all Koreans today.

If you get a chance, be sure to see this picture, there is certain to be something of interest in it for you.

Train to Busan is available on SBS on-demand