Seok-woo in Train to Busan (Busanhaeng) photograph via MIFF.
First, snakes slithered on board a plane. Now, zombies stagger through a train – though, high-concept premise aside, one film bears little resemblance to the other. Both may combine a fearsome force with a confined environment filled with unsuspecting people, then wait for terror and thrills to eventuate; however Train to Busan (Busanhaeng) finds entertainment in competence rather than cliché. There’s a difference between relying upon formula for knowing laughs and employing tried and tested components to engage, with writer/director Yeon Sang-ho’s first live-action effort (and sequel to his animated offering Seoul Station) falling firmly in the latter category.
Whereas Seoul Station explored the initial outbreak that turned one of the city’s railway stations and its surrounding area into a sea of flesh-eating figures, Train to Busan hops on a locomotive headed out of town. All it takes is one infected person to take the journey for chaos and carnage to become the norm. Soon, the train’s carriages are overrun with the ravenous walking dead preying upon cowering passengers in a high-speed battle for survival.
Fund manager Seok-woo (Gong Yoo, A Man and a Woman) and his young daughter Su-an (Kim Su-ran, Memories of the Sword) rank among those fighting for their lives, and trying to work through their family issues in the process. Elsewhere, Sang-hwa (Ma Dong-suk, Exchange) endeavours to keep his pregnant wife Sung-kyung (Jung Yu-mi, Our Sunhi) from harm, though he still finds time to bicker with Seok-woo about being a selfless rather than self-serving protector. Anxious high school baseball player Young-guk (Choi Woo-sik, Big Match) stays close to affectionate cheerleader Jin-hee (An So-hee,Heart to Heart), while arrogant and cowardly executive Yong-suk (Kim Eui-sung, Hill of Freedom) cares little for those around them. As their paths continue to cross, the danger only increases — as does the body count.
There’s little about the feature that follows that’s unexpected, particularly as its later moments veer into more prolonged and generic territory, but there’s also little that fails to infect viewers with tension-riddled enthusiasm either. Yeon is as skilled at hewing to genre conventions as he is layering animated fare with insights; in fact, while his previous work in 2011’s The King of Pigs and 2013’s The Fake impressed in their complexity, Train to Busan improves upon its immediate, intertwined predecessor. Ramping up the action stakes, set pieces both within and outside of the titular vehicle are crafted to make an impact, both with broad-scale boldness that sees stations overrun, and with the claustrophobic energy and attention to detail that stems from witnessing the zombies in close quarters. Thematically, Yeon alludes to the recent MERS epidemic, carves out commentary about class disparities, and contemplates humanity’s ever-growing penchant for selfishness.
Indeed, as all the best monster movies and undead efforts such as Frankenstein and Night of the Living Dead have previously emphasised, pondering the concept of culpability is as compelling as charting causality, consequences, and the usual narrative mechanics. Train to Busan does both, and doesn’t shy away from its line of thought that people capable of acting so terribly towards each other are the real creatures to be feared. Accordingly, the treatment of ostensible protagonist of Seok-woo subverts the usual heroic journey with this overtly in mind, while scathing glimpses of mob mentality at its worst make a clear and horrific statement. Other than scene-stealers Kim and Ma, the performances don’t quite offer the same depths, but the bulk of the cast convincingly goes along for the feature’s rousing, riveting ride.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Train to Busan (Busanhaeng)
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
South Korea, 2016, 118 mins
Melbourne International Film Festival
July 28 – August 14, 2016
In general release: August 11
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