Train to Busan, the Korean zombie-cult film arrives in cinemas and you can't miss it

It seems incredible that one of the most significant and celebrated zombie films of the last decade never made it to Italian cinemas, landing directly on the home video market. This serious oversight has finally been rectified by the partnership between Tucker Film and BIM Distribuzione, who have decided to finally bring Train to Busan to theaters ten years after its release.

For those who have already seen and loved this Korean cult film, this is a unique opportunity, also given the 4K version chosen for the occasion, while those who are still new to the viewing pleasure will discover a full-fledged blockbuster, which combines excellent special effects and "makeup and hair" with enveloping emotion, typical of many productions from these latitudes. The film also definitively launched the career of director Yeon Sang-ho, who later became a guru of fantasy productions not only in cinema but also in the TV series landscape, just think of Hellbound or Human Vapor, where he always has a hand in some capacity – producer or screenwriter.

A train to catch at all costs

Yet the path leading to Train to Busan was not a leap in the dark, but passed through a fundamental intermediate step, which goes by the name of Seoul Station, an animated prequel also directed by the same author and distributed almost concurrently. A kind of companion film, designed to complete in animated form the beginning of that epidemic which, in this instance, targeted the South Korean capital.

But let's go in order and focus now on the title at the center of this article, which tells the story of Seok-woo, a work-obsessed businessman separated from his wife who agrees to accompany his young daughter Su-an to Busan to celebrate the little girl's birthday. The journey will be made on a high-speed train departing from Seoul station. Unfortunately, just before the doors close, an already infected girl manages to jump aboard, and within minutes the train turns into a fatal trap for the passengers, who, after being bitten, obviously transform into fast and agile zombies hungry for human flesh.
Together with Seok-woo and the child, a small group of individuals band together, at least initially, to respond to the ever-increasing threat, which carriage after carriage continues to swell its ranks on a runaway train that is now difficult to stop.

All for one, one for all... or maybe not?

The connection with Seoul Station is the key to understanding the operation in its entirety. Where the animated prequel told the origin of the epidemic from the perspective of those society had already declared outcasts, Train to Busan chooses to shift the focus to a real class struggle within the train, partially in the wake of what another classic from the same latitudes did, namely the equally memorable Snowpiercer (2013) by Bong Joon-ho.

It is no coincidence that the film was released in its home country precisely around the time of the MERS epidemic that in 2015 brought the national health system to its knees and generated growing distrust towards institutions: almost two hundred people infected and thirty-six victims profoundly marked the Asian country. Train to Busan intercepted that collective anxiety to transform it into a compelling and emotional film, with a roster of main characters in whom every viewer will find a point of reference: from students to wealthy bourgeois, from giants with hearts of gold – the film marks one of the first significant roles for the massive Don Lee, now a well-known star abroad – to that desperate child invoking her father's help.

Here, every door that closes to prevent the number of infected from inexorably increasing also ends up condemning to "certain death" those who, despite themselves, remained on the wrong side of the glass. The beauty of the screenplay is its care in providing practically every figure on screen with a distinct personality, and not making the characters mere cannon fodder as in many Hollywood horror films. And then, of course, there's the aesthetic impact, that horror soul that explodes powerfully in numerous key scenes, with a tasteful but never gratuitously disturbing violence, top-notch makeup and special effects, and a frightening number of extras, with mass scenes that would make even much more expensive genre classics pale in comparison.

Sequel and legacy

By the end, we challenge the viewer not to shed a few tears for the fate of some of these survivors, with that epilogue that opens the doors to a continuation. A continuation that was indeed realized four years later with Peninsula (2020), a sequel that tried to do things even bigger but lost the soul behind the prototype. Not a mediocre film, but certainly below the potential it could have expressed, paradoxically colder and more limited despite a setting and a budget that allowed for greater room for maneuver.

But that remains another story in any case, and while completists will rightly want to catch up on the trilogy in its entirety, the more casual audience can easily enjoy Train to Busan as a simple stand-alone, as the story still finds a satisfying full circle closure, amply justifying the ticket price and the two hours spent watching it.