Train to Busan (Korean: ; RR: Busanhaeng; MR: Pusanhaeng; lit. To Busan) is a 2016 South Korean action-horror film starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, and Kim Eui-sung. The film was directed by Yeon Sang-ho. The majority of the film takes place on a KTX traveling from Seoul to Busan during the zombie apocalypse, which threatens the passengers’ safety.
On May 13, the movie had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival in the Midnight Screenings section. The film broke the audience record of more than 10 million people on August 7, making it the first Korean film of 2016 to do so.
The movie successfully launched the Train to Busan film series, with the animated prequel Seoul Station released in 2016 and a standalone sequel named Peninsula released in 2020. An American-produced adaptation and a second installment are also in the works.
Plot
Seok-woo is a fund manager who is also a divorced father and a workaholic. His estranged daughter Su-an wants to spend her birthday with her mother Na-young in Busan. A video of Su-an attempting to sing “Aloha Oe” at her singing recital is shown to Seok-woo, who then observes Su-an succumbing to stage fright as a result of his absence. He decides to grant Su-an’s birthday wish out of guilt.
They board the KTX 101 at Seoul Station the following day to travel to Busan. Blue-collar worker Sang-hwa and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong, as well as COO Yon-suk, a high school baseball team with player Yong-guk and his cheerleader girlfriend Jin-hee, elderly sisters In-gil and Jong-gil, and a homeless stowaway who has been traumatized and is hiding in the bathroom are among the other passengers.
A sick woman sneaks onto the train unnoticed before it leaves. She attacks a train attendant who also turns into a zombie. The disease quickly spreads throughout the train. The group moves on to a different vehicle and locks the doors. Internet reports and phone calls indicate that the nation is experiencing an epidemic that is spreading southward. When the train comes to a stop at Daejeon Station, the survivors discover that the city has been overrun by zombies and rush back to the train, splitting up into various train cars.
By phone, Seok-woo finds out that his company is indirectly to blame for the outbreak. The conductor plots a course to the quarantine zone that the military has established near Busan. After becoming estranged from their loved ones, Seok-woo, Sang-hwa, and Yong-guk fight their way to the location where Su-an and Seong-kyeong are hiding alongside In-gil and the homeless man.
They fight their way through the zombie horde until they reach the front train car, where the other passengers are safe. Fearing that the survivors are infected, the passengers prevent the survivors from entering the train at Yon-suk’s and Ki-chul’s direction. To give the others time to force open the door and enter the vehicle, Sang-hwa makes a self-denial, but In-gil is killed.
Yon-suk, Ki-chul, and the other passengers insist that the survivors remain in the front vestibule alone. However, Jong-gil deliberately opens the other door, allowing the zombies to enter the vehicle and kill the remaining passengers. She is disgusted by the passengers and despairing over her sister’s death. Yon-suk and Ki-chul hide in the bathroom to get away.
The survivors are forced to stop and look for another train at East Daegu Station due to a blocked track. After pushing Ki-chul into the zombies, Yon-suk manages to get away. Seok-woo, Su-an, Seong-kyeong, and the homeless man are trapped beneath a carriage full of zombies when a flaming locomotive crashes, separating the group.
In the meantime, Yon-suk collides with Jin-hee and Yong-guk, turning the latter into a zombie as he tries to flee. Yong-guk is devastated and stays with Jin-hee until she kills him. While attempting to save Yon-suk from injury, the conductor starts a locomotive on a different track but is also thrown into the zombies. Seok-woo finds a way out from under the carriage, but shortly thereafter, falling debris blocks the escape route.
Seok-woo, Su-an, and Seong-kyeong are able to board the brand-new locomotive after the homeless man gives himself up to give Seok-woo enough time to clear the debris. They come across Yon-suk, who is on the verge of becoming a zombie and is pleading for help after fighting off zombies that were clinging to the locomotive. He is thrown off, but Seok-woo is bitten. He takes Su-an and Seong-kyeong into the engine room, shows them how to use the train, and bids them farewell.
Before turning around, he throws himself off the train and thinks back to the time when Su-an was born. Su-an and Seong-kyeong are forced to stop the train at a tunnel just before Busan because of another train blockage. The two get out of the train and walk along the tracks through the tunnel. When they hear Su-an singing “Aloha ‘Oe,” she is paying tribute to her late father, and the snipers on the other side of the tunnel see them and prepare to shoot at them because they think they are zombies. However, they stop when they hear Su-an.
Cast
33
credit – https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/396535/cast
-
Gong Yoo Seok-woo
-
Kim Su-an Soo-ahn
-
Jung Yu-mi Sung-gyeong
-
Don Lee Sang-hwa
-
Choi Woo-shik Yeong-gook
-
An So-hee Jin-hee
-
Kim Eui-sung Yong-suk
-
Ye Su-jeong In-gil
-
Park Myung-shin Jong-gil
-
Choi Gwi-hwa Homeless Man
-
Jeong Seok-yong Captain of KTX
-
Kim Chang-hwan Kim Jin-mo
-
Jang Hyuk-jin Ki-chul
-
Shim Eun-kyung Stowaway
-
Lee Joo-sil Seok-woo’s Mother
-
Kim Jae-rok Mr. Kim
-
Cha Chung-hwa Mountaineering Woman
-
Kim Won-jin Embarrassing Youth
-
Han Ji-eun Earphones Girl
-
Image not available
Han Sung-soo Train Attendant
-
Lee Jung-ok Suit
-
Kim Ju-hun Baseball Team Manager
-
Kim Keum-soon Survivor
-
Image not available
Chyu Kwang-hyun Infected
-
Jung Young-ki Captain Min (voice)
-
Ok Joo-ri Survivor
-
Woo Do-im Cabin Attendant Min-ji
-
Song Ji-hyuk Baseball Team
-
Kim Woon Infected (uncredited)
-
Jeon Ye-eun Infected (uncredited)
-
Baek Seung-hwan Survivor (uncredited)
-
Yeon Sang-ho Control Room (uncredited)
-
Choi Woo-sung Infected (uncredited)
Production
Park Joo-suk’s original story serves as the basis for the movie. The group looked at the movements of the nurses in Silent Hill and the dolls from Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, as well as the movements of the zombies in the video game 7 Days to Die. The movie was shot in various Daejeon, Cheonan, and East Daegu stations.
The movie’s water deer were modeled in 3D and taken from real water deer videos. The film’s exterior scenery was shot using an LED plate rear screen technique behind a set piece that was based on the KTX-I’s interior, allowing the characters to stand out more. Using an airbrush, the zombies’ blood vessels were drawn. The zombies were dressed in different ways based on how far along the disease was.
Reception
Box Office
With a worldwide gross of $98.5 million, Train to Busan made $80.5 million in South Korea, $2.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $15.8 million in other territories.
In Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, it became the most successful Korean movie ever. It was the year’s highest-grossing movie with over 11 million ticket sales in South Korea.
Critical response
According to the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has received positive reviews from 95% of 129 critics, with an average rating of 7.70/10. “Train to Busan delivers a thrillingly unique — and purely entertaining — take on the zombie genre, with fully realized characters and ample social commentary to underscore the bursts of skillfully staged action,” reads the consensus of the website’s critics. Based on 16 reviews, Metacritic, which gives reviews a normalized rating, gave the movie an average score of 72 out of 100, indicating “generally favorable reviews.”
According to Entertainment Weekly’s Clark Collis, “the result is first-class throughout,” the film “borrows heavily from World War Z in its depiction of the fast-moving undead masses while also boasting an emotional core the Brad Pitt-starring extravaganza often lacked.” The film was chosen by Jeannette Catsoulis as her “Critic’s Pick” at The New York Times because of its subtle class warfare.
“As the characters whittle away into archetypes (and start making senseless decisions), the spectacle also sheds its unique personality,” says IndieWire’s David Ehrlich in a review that is more mixed. The Playlist’s Kevin Jagernauth stated, “[Train to Busan] neither has anything perceptive to say about humanity in the face of crisis nor does it add anything significant to the zombie genre.” While it’s easy to make the remark that Train to Busan lacks brains, what it really needs, and sadly does not have, is heart.”
Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright, a British filmmaker, personally praised the film in 2016 and referred to it as the “best zombie movie I’ve seen in forever” on Twitter.
Our Review
In the zombie apocalypse genre, Train to Busan is a lesson in blending high-octane action, emotional resonance, and social commentary. This 2016 South Korean thriller swept the globe due to its breakneck pace, memorable characters, and narrative that transcends the standard “survive the undead” fare. It’s not just a zombie movie; it’s more a tale of humanity, sacrifice, and how far we’ll go for the people we love.
It revolves around Seok-woo, a workaholic fund manager and divorced father who takes his young daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) on a KTX from Seoul to Busan to visit her mother. What starts out as a normal journey soon turns into pandemonium when a zombie outbreak breaks out, beginning with an infected woman who boards the train. Seok-woo and a multicultural mix of passengers—such as a stone-faced husband Sang-hwa (Ma Dong-seok), his expectant wife Seong-kyeong (Jung Yu-mi), a group of high school baseball players, and a greedy businessman Yon-suk (Kim Eui-sung)—have to stick together—or fight each other off—to make it out of the ride alive as the virus quickly spreads through the rickety carriages.
The pacing of the film is perhaps its biggest strength. Train to Busan never lets up once the outbreak begins. Each locked door and narrow corridor is a war zone where life hangs in the balance due to the train’s cramped setting, which ratchets up the tension. The violence is maintained visceral and contained by Yeon Sang-ho’s direction, with zombie masses moving with nightmare speed and randomness. These scenes are masterfully choreographed, shifting seamlessly between scenes of quiet horror and scenes of madness, as with the scene in which survivors must move stealthily through a vehicle packed with zombies.
Yet Train to Busan’s heart beats with more than its competition’s. Its characters are more than mere zombie sustenance; they are developed characters with defects, desires, and relationships that grow under pressure. Seok-woo is an aloof, egotistical man who has grown up in a cutthroat business culture.
But in saving Su-an, he embarks on a truly affecting path of redemption. Gong Yoo delivers a nuanced performance, embodying the character’s initial remoteness as well as his increasingly desperate wish to be a better father. In the same vein, Sang-hwa performed by Ma Dong-seok swipes every scene with a combination of brute power and gentle heart that makes one of the film’s best parts his relationship with his wife and unborn child.
Similarly, the supporting cast is noteworthy. Su-an, played by moral compass of the story Kim Su-an, showcases innocence and empathy, starkly contrasting with the selfishness of others, particularly Kim Eui-sung’s unflinchingly pragmatic Yon-suk. A persistent motif of Yeon’s, this businessman is a prime example of the film’s denunciation of individualism and class disparity. While the remaining survivors battle not only zombies but also one another, Train to Busan quietly inquires: who are the true monsters here?
The film has a striking look. The cinematography maximizes the linear design of the train by using dynamic angles and close shots to create an even greater sense of being trapped. The jerky motion and contorted bodies of the zombies themselves contribute to the fright factor without going too far in the gore department, with them being an abject sight all on their own. Even years after, the special effects of the film hold up well, and the lighting, particularly in the tunnel sequences, is creepy and lasting.
If there is anything that must be criticized, it is that a few of the plot twists borrow tropes from traditional zombie films, including the inevitable betrayal, the heroic sacrifice, and the rescue at the last minute. But Train to Busan executes these tropes with such earnestness and emotional resonance that they feel fresh. Especially, the third act is a gut-check that builds to a heartbreaking conclusion and has become one of the genre’s most notorious endings.
Aside from its action, the movie is also a commentary on society’s collapse. It was released at a period of political instability in South Korea and discusses concerns regarding leadership, trust, and the survival of the group—concerns that appear to be universal and timeless. The train is a microcosm of society, where good and evil people converge.
In a nutshell, Train to Busan is a success.
It’s a zombie flick that not only frightens you, but also makes you feel something. It’s fast-paced but introspective and ruthless at the same time. It’s a ride that’s worth taking, whether you’re a fan of horror or just appreciate good storytelling. You’ll be exhausted, emotionally moved, and perhaps even a little optimistic about what it means to be human in a crazy world by the time the credits come on.
People review(Taken From google)
