Train to Busan

Ma Dong-seok and Gong Yoo get ready for the commute from hell in Train to Busan.

Zombies make commuting a nightmare in this Korean classic

What’s Train to Busan About?

Absent father Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) has a lot to make up for. He missed his daughter Soo-an’s (Su-an Kim) recital exacerbating her stage fright. The only thing Soo-an wants for her birthday is to visit her mother in Busan.

Though he’s hurt that his daughter wants to see her mother, Seok-woo relents and gets them on a train. Unfortunately, a girl bitten by a zombie also enters the train the little family is on. As an outbreak takes over the car Seok-woo must team up with other passengers to survive the ride.

While the zombies might be a problem, working with strangers to save each other is far more terrifying.

What Makes Train to Busan Good?

Everyone has preferences with zombie movies — some like shambling zombies, others fast zombies, some like movies where people are the real monsters, others prefer movies where the zombies are the pressing threat. Somehow, director Sang-ho Yeon managed to make a zombie movie that impresses just about every horror aficionado on earth.

Here, the zombies are fast, as is the action. There’s a frenetic pace to Train to Busan that doesn’t let anyone, including the audience, catch its breath. It’s a brutal, thrilling film that will have you yelling at people to run or flinching when one in the group falls.

Sang-ho Yeon plays with tension by allowing the audience to guess what’s next and then delivering it to them in an excruciatingly slow way. As the survivors glide down an escalator, assuming they’re free, we can see a crowd of military personnel milling about at the base of the escalator. Now, anyone who’s ever seen a horror movie will know something is very wrong at this moment, but as we watch, the passengers slowly descend with oblivious smiles. Then, one of the soldiers twitches, and the unnatural growling starts. It’s a gut-wrenching moment, where you get to experience the horrendous realization with the survivors — they’re not safe, in fact, they might have just descended into their doom.

By fulfilling our expectations Sang-ho Yeon actually amplifies the tension in the film.

Train to Busan is also notable because it’s got amazing action. South Korean film loves a good fight on a train. In this movie, we get a motley trio of survivors battling through car after car of zombies to get to their loved ones and safety. Ma Dong-seok especially excels in the zombie fight scenes, as a brawler with duct tape on his forearms. It’s a nice break from the scares with thrilling action sequences, giving the audience a chance to catch its breath before the next horrifying death.

And you’ll be horrified.

Train to Busan has no problem killing off sympathetic or beloved characters. Don’t get too attached to anyone, because Sang-ho Yeon isn’t afraid of breaking your heart. The risk of great writing in a horror movie is that you’ll really care about the kills.

Verdict

Managing to pack the thrills of The Raid into a 28 Days Later format is quite the feat, but Train to Busan manages it beautifully. If you’re looking for a zombie film that’ll make you want to invest in a spare roll of packing tape and be forever suspicious of public transportation, this is the film for you.
Train to Busan is rated PG-13 and is available via YouTube, Freevee, FilmRise, Peacock, Plex, Crackle, Tubi TV, and Pluto TV.