TRAIN TO BUSAN : Tuesday 11th August 2020.

Whilst not a latest release, I did see this 2016 popular and successful South Korean zombie horror offering at my local multiplex this week, and 'TRAIN TO BUSAN' (Rated MA15+) did not disappoint. This film is being screened as a double bill offering with its standalone sequel 'Peninsula' which is released in Australia this week. Both instalments are Directed by Yeon Sang-ho, and this film is Sang-ho's debut live action feature. This film saw its World Premier screening in the Midnight Section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival before its initial release in its native South Korea on 20th July 2016 where it notched up eleven million theatregoers contributing to its US$98M return from a budget outlay of US$8.5M. The film garnered generally positive critical acclaim and 32 award wins and another 39 nominations from around the awards and festival circuit.

Here fund manager, Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) is a detached workaholic, a divorcee and is somewhat disconnected from his young daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an). Arriving home late one evening where he lives with his mother and daughter he presents Su-an with a birthday gift, as the next day is her birthday. But the gift is an exact duplicate of a gaming console she already has and is therefore none to impressed. All that Su-an wants to do is to travel to Busan to spend her birthday with her mother. Much to his chagrin, Seok-woo reluctantly agrees to accompany Su-an on the one hour train journey from Seoul Station to Busan.

On board the train we are quickly introduced to a mix of other passengers comprising a working-class man Sang-hwa (Ma Dong-seok) and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong (Jung Yu-mi), the self-centred COO of the Stallion Express rail line Yon-suk (Kim Eui-sung), a high school baseball team, including Yong-guk (Choi Woo-shik) and his cheerleader girlfriend Jin-hee (Sohee), elderly sisters In-gil (Ye Soo-jung) and Jong-gil (Park Myung-Sin), and a homeless stowaway (Choi Gwi-hwa) suffering with PTSD after witnessing a zombie attack in which 'everbody's dead'. As the train is about to depart, the guard fails to notice an infected woman jump on the train, and in no time becomes a zombie and attacks an attendant who quickly turns too. All the while the passengers are settling into their seats and watching the live news broadcast on the overhead TV monitors of rioting, violence and social unrest in the cities in which the Police, armed forces and authorities seem powerless to quell.

Meanwhile, the infection begins to spread throughout the train. The group is able to escape the oncoming horde by advancing further up the train, albeit in a mad panic. The train makes a scheduled stop at Daejeon Station, which when they arrive is completely deserted. There is supposed to be an army post there to meet them to safeguard the passengers and escort them all to a safe place, but there is no sign of the army.

Gingerly exiting the station they soon discover to their horror that the army are all infected and give chase to the passengers. Seok-woo learns it for himself when an advancing soldier is completely overrun by the infected. The remaining passengers make it back to the train with Yong-guk, Sang-hwa, and Seok-woo becoming separated from Su-an, Seong-kyeong, In-gil, and the homeless man who by now have stowed themselves away in a toilet cubicle out of sight of marauding zombies.

The military sets up a quarantine zone near Busan, and the train conductor heads the train there. Seok-woo, Sang-hwa and Yong-guk who have become separated from their loved ones about four cars down train, arm themselves with Yong-guk's baseball bat, riot gear, and padded and gaffer taped wrists and lower arms to fight their way up to them through the zombies taking it one car at a time. Once reunited with their loved ones, they make their way up to the front of the train where other survivors are holed up.

However, Yon-suk has taken charge at that end of the train and as initiated by him, his fellow surviving passengers prevent the others from entering their car, fearing that they too are infected. Sang-hwa who by now is forcibly trying to prevent the horde from entering their car is bitten by a zombie and ultimately sacrifices himself to the infected horde to give the others time to enter the car by force.

Yon-suk and the other passengers demand that the survivors isolate themselves in the vestibule in the next carriage. However, Jong-gil who is disgusted at the passengers' selfishness and in despair over the loss of her beloved sister who has become a zombie – allows the infected to enter and kill them all. In an ironic twist of fate the passengers who had forced Seok-woo's group to isolate all perish as his group remains safe, for now. Yon-suk has also managed to escape by hiding in a toilet cubicle with a train attendant, with the other survivors breaking off into groups. Seok-woo, Su-an, Seong-kyeong, Jin-hee, Yong-guk, and the homeless man are in one group, and Yon-suk, and the final train attendant is in the other.

A train derailment has blocked the track at East Daegu train station which forces the survivors to stop and search for another train to continue their final leg to Busan. The captain of the train (Jeong Seok-yong) goes off in search of a new engine, but when confronted by an advancing horde Yon-suk pushes him into the path of the infected to save himself. Jin-hee is also bitten while trying to board another train to escape the advancing horde. Heartbroken, Yong-guk stays with Jin-hee until she turns and kills him.

Meanwhile another train engulfed in flames is speeding towards the survivors who have now disembarked their train in search of the other engine that the now dead Captain went in search of. That train collides with others and traps the survivors under its upturned carriages and under a train packed tight with zombies. As the sheer weight of the zombies causes the windows of the train to shatter the homeless man attempts to stave off the advancing horde momentarily by sacrificing himself so that Seok-woo has time to save Su-an and Seong-kyeong through a hole under the derailed train.

Seeing that there is a working and now moving locomotive, Seok-woo, Seong-kyeong, and Su-an narrowly evade the zombies, and the three board the working locomotive and encounter Yon-suk, who is infected and on the verge of turning. Seok-woo and Yon-suk fight and with Seok-woo gaining the upper hand and throwing him off the train, is bitten in the process. He hurriedly tells Seong-kyeong how to operate the automatic dynamic braking system, and bids an emotional farewell to his distraughtly sobbing daughter, throwing himself off the train before he turns.

The surviving pair bring the train to a halt just before a tunnel because the track is blocked with barricades and dead bodies strewn everywhere. They continue following the tracks on foot. Army snipers located at the opposite end see Seong-kyeong and Su-an advancing and once they realise they're human, and not infected, send a small group to bring them to safety.

'Train to Busan' is an accomplished mash up of 'Snowpiercer' and 'World War Z' that combines an eerily effective aesthetic with emotion, energy, tension, thrills, style, at times a dose of humour and of course plenty of gore and bloodshed delivered by them pesky no good zombie types. The film is well crafted with a reliance on practical effects that helps ground the action sequences in the real world, the performances by the principle cast are relatable and believable in their characterisations, there is both social and political commentary interwoven into the storyline, and all of the elements make for a zombie horror offering that is a cut above the generally formulaic zombie genre films that get churned out in spades. One of best, most fast paced, emotionally charged zombie gore fests to emerge in recent times. A must see for lovers of the genre.

'Train to Busan' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-