Train to Busan (Korean: 부산행; RR: 'Busanhaeng', Hanja:釜山行) is a 2016 South Korean zombie apocalypse action thriller film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, and Ma Dong-seok. The film mostly takes place on a train headed to Busan during a sudden zombie apocalypse in South Korea that compromises the survival of the passengers.
Plot[]
Fund manager Seok-woo is a cynical workaholic and divorced father of his daughter Su-an, who wants to spend her birthday with her mother in Busan. Seok-woo sees a video of Su-an attempting to sing "Aloha ʻOe" at her singing recital and succumbing to stage fright as a result of his absence. Overcome with guilt, he decides to grant Su-an's birthday wish. The next day, they board the KTX 101 at Seoul Station, en route to Busan. Other passengers include the train's staff (the driver, Ki-chul, Min-ji, Hye-yeong, etc.), Sang-hwa and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong, businessman Yong-suk, a high school baseball team (including player Yong-guk and his girlfriend Jin-hee), elderly sisters In-gil and Jong-gil, and a traumatized homeless stowaway hiding in the bathroom. As the train departs an unknown woman runs onto the train unnoticed. The infected woman reveals herself as a zombie and attacks Min-ji, who also turns into a zombie. The infection spreads rapidly throughout the train.
The survivors escape to another car and lock the doors. Internet reports and phone calls tell them that an epidemic is spreading southward across the country. After the train stops at Daejeon Station, the surviving passengers find the city overrun by zombies and hastily retreat back to the train, splitting up into different train cars in the ensuing chaos. Seok-woo learns by phone that his company is indirectly involved in the disaster. The military establishes a quarantine zone near Busan, to which the engineer sets a course. Seok-woo, Sang-hwa and Yong-guk - who have become separated from their loved ones - fight their way to where Su-an and Seong-kyeong are hiding with In-gil and the homeless man. Once regrouped, they struggle through the zombie horde to the front train car - where the rest of the passengers are sheltered. At the prompting of Yon-suk and Ki-chul, the passengers prevent the survivors from entering, fearing that they are infected. Sang-hwa sacrifices himself to give the others time to force open the door and enter the car, but In-gil is killed. Yon-suk and the passengers demand that the survivors isolate themselves in the front vestibule. However, Jong-gil – disgusted at the passengers and despairing for the loss of her sister – deliberately opens the other door and allows the zombies to enter and kill her and the rest of the car's passengers while Yong-suk and Ki-chul escape by hiding in the bathroom.
A blocked track at East Daegu station forces the survivors to stop and search for another train. Yong-suk escapes after pushing Ki-chul into the zombies, then he does the same with Jin-hee when they run into each other on the tracks. Heartbroken, Yong-guk stays and cries until she turns and kills him. The train conductor starts a locomotive on another track, but is also thrown to the zombies while trying to save an injured Yon-suk. A flaming locomotive derails and traps the remaining survivors, but Seok-woo finds a way out. The rest of the group is trapped again by falling debris. The homeless man sacrifices himself to buy time for Seok-woo to clear the debris and Su-an and Seong-kyeong to escape onto the new locomotive. After fighting off zombies hanging onto the locomotive, they encounter Yon-suk, who is on the verge of turning into a zombie and is begging for help, having been bitten when the conductor saved him. Seok-woo manages to throw him off, but he is bitten. He puts Su-an and Seong-kyeong inside the engine room, teaches Seong-kyeong how to operate the train, and says goodbye to his daughter before he throws himself off the locomotive due to the bite. Due to another train blockage, Su-an and Seong-kyeong are forced to stop the train at a tunnel just prior to Busan. The two exit the train and continue following the tracks on foot through the tunnel. Snipers are stationed on the other side of the tunnel and are prepared to shoot at what they believe to be zombies, but they lower their weapons and rush towards them to help them when they hear Su-an singing "Aloha ʻOe".
Cast[]
- Gong Yoo as Seok-woo, a work-obsessed fund manager
- Kim Su-an as Su-an, Seok-woo's young daughter
- Jung Yu-mi as Seong-kyeong, Sang-hwa's pregnant wife
- Ma Dong-seok as Sang-hwa, a tough, working-class man
- Choi Woo-shik as Yong-guk, a young baseball player
- Ahn So-hee as Jin-hee, Yong-guk's girlfriend
- Kim Eui-sung as Yong-suk, a rich company official
- Choi Gwi-hwa as the homeless man
- Jung Suk-yong as the train conductor
- Ye Soo-jung as In-gil
- Park Myung-sin as Jong-gil
- Jang Hyuk-jin as Ki-chul, a train attendant
- Woo Do-im as Min-ji, a train attendant
- Shim Eun-kyung as the infected girl
Reception[]
Box office[]
Train to Busan grossed $93.1 million worldwide. It became the highest-grossing Korean film in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It recorded more than 11 million moviegoers in South Korea.
Critical response[]
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 95% rating based on 87 critics, and an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Train to Busan delivers a thrillingly unique – and purely entertaining – take on the zombie genre, with fully realized characters and plenty of social commentary to underscore the bursts of skillfully staged action." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film an average score of 72 based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Clark Collis of Entertainment Weekly wrote that 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," adding that "the result is first-class throughout." At The New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis selected the film as her "Critic's Pick" and took notice of its subtle class warfare. Filmmaker Edgar Wright, who directed the BAFTA nominated zombie-comedy Shaun of the Dead, was a big fan of the film. Wright recommended the film in a tweet and called it the "best zombie movie I've seen in forever."
In contrast, the negative reviews have described the film as "Snowpiercer with zombies." David Ehrlich of IndieWire comments that "as the characters whittle away into archetypes (and start making senseless decisions), the spectacle also sheds its unique personality."
Prequel[]
An animated prequel, Seoul Station, also directed by Yeon, was released less than a month later.
Remake and Sequel[]
Variety said in December 2016 that Gaumont would remake Train to Busan in English. On September 25, 2018, Deadline reports James Wan will be producing the remake with Gary Dauberman writing the script.
South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho is working on a sequel to Train to Busan with the title Peninsula.
Peninsula a movie that is said to be showing the events four years after Train to Busan and also directed by Yeon, and was released in July 2020. Yeon has stated that, "Peninsula is not a sequel to Train to Busan because it's not a continuation of the story, but it happens in the same universe." It’s also very different from train to Busan character wise and plot wise, the only similarities are zombies.
Trivia/Errors[]
- Train to Busan is the first South Korean zombie film
- Also, The first live action film created by Yeon Sang-ho.