Disastrous Recommendation - Train to Busan

After trying to find the original Oldboy on Netflix and failing, I saw a bunch of other South Korean action thrillers on the platform. Having heard some good things about Train to Busan, and loving the original nature of South Korean Cinema, I put it on. And I was f*cking blown away.

Train to Busan is a movie where absolutely everything works. The camerawork, the comedy, the acting, the tension, the horror, the effects, everything about this movie is working at maximum capacity. It may be the perfect zombie movie, rising above Shaun of the Dead and even the original Night of the Living Dead.

Let’s start with the most gripping aspect of the movie, and that is how unrelentingly kinetic it is. The zombies aren’t slow, plodding creatures, but monstrous animals that sprint like madmen and will tear you limb from limb. The camerawork is shaky and unstable, but always cut at the right times with plenty of wides or long takes to make sure the audience isn’t overwhelmed. And the movie just wastes no time at all. It’s relentless fury and noise, always making a point at any point, quite similar in structure to Mad Max: Fury Road’s endless onslaught of kineticism.

And I must stress how brilliantly this movie is shot. Not just the actual beauty of the images on screen, but the camera movement and even just the framing of shots is outstanding. Long takes and tight wides are used absolutely perfectly by director Yeon Sang-Ho. If there’s some iffy CGI, the relentless movement and terrifying imagery, coupled with brilliant sound design, always brushes that away.

But interestingly, the movie diverts from a typical disaster flick by actually getting you to care somewhat for its characters, rather than overwhelming the screen with CGI and crazy. You even somewhat care for the human villain, as he has motivations even if that means stepping over bodies to get to it.

Add to that an incredible lead performance by Gong Yoo as a workaholic dad caught up in a zombie outbreak on a speeding train, as well as strong support from actors like Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an and Parasite’s Choi Woo-Shik, and you have one of the best disaster movie casts ever assembled.

The screenplay, too, is trying to divert from typical disaster format by actually throwing in natural humour that isn’t trying to make you sigh or cringe. There’s also possibly an underlying commentary on class politics in the movie, but even if you don’t really care about that, the screenplay is extremely engaging, with both emotional conflict and a zombie falling from a helicopter onto a skateboarding teenager.

Before you watch, I just want to stress: Please don’t view this as Snowpiercer with zombies, as some reviewers have. First off, you could literally describe any movie that way. Second, the themes of class do not factor as much into Train to Busan as they do Snowpiercer. And thirdly, assuming a Korean movie set on a train is Snowpiercer? That’s racist.

Regardless, this movie is perfect. I would not change a frickin’ frame. It’s the best zombie movie and the best disaster movie I’ve probably ever seen, and sure as hell, I’m going to give it an A+.

Have you seen Train to Busan? If so, what did you think of it? Leave your answers in the comments below.