Seoul Station (film)

Seoul Station

Poster
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho[1]
Produced by Suh Youngjoo
Lee Dong-ha
Yeon Sang-ho
Written by Yeon Sang-ho
Starring Ryu Seung-ryong
Shim Eun-kyung
Lee Joon
Release dates
  • August 18, 2016 (2016-08-18)
Running time
 92 minutes
Country South Korea
Language Korean
Budget 575,000 $[2]

Seoul Station (Korean: 서울역) is a South Korean animated zombie film directed by Yeon Sang-ho.[3] Released on August 18, 2016, the film stars Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung and Lee Joon in the lead roles.[4][5] The film was shown at the 2016 Edinburgh Film Festival.[6]

The film serves as the prequel to the live-action film Train to Busan[7][8] by the same director.

Plot

Taking place in and around Seoul station, a man sleeping rough is the catalyst for a zombie apocalypse. Through this a young runaway woman must try to survive in a world that sees her as disposable.[6] The story revolves around two main characters: Suk-gyu (voiced by Seung-ryong Ryu), a father who searches for his runaway daughter (Hye-Sun, voiced by Shim Eun-kyung), only to discover she has become a prostitute. Just as he was about to be reunited with her, a zombie epidemic breaks out in Seoul.[9]

The film begins in front of Seoul Station's terminal building as a bloodied man collapses. A fashionable young man, in the middle of telling his friend how he believes in universal healthcare, steps forward to look but gives a cold shoulder after seeing that it is just a "stinky homeless guy". The dying man's younger brother runs around to ask help from the people, yet the people refuse. Further, he is frowned at by social workers, denigrated by police officers and roughed up by hoodlums.

The old man soon becomes a savage, blood-lusting zombie, setting off chaos that sweeps through the station, first among those squatting in the corridors and then among everybody in the terminal's vicinity. It's against the first scenery that the protagonists makes their entry. Hye-sun has just run away from her previous life of quasi-slavery at a brothel, and is now living with her good-for-nothing boyfriend, Ki-woong (voiced by Lee Joon), whose idea of earning a living is pimping out Hye-sun online. After a row about this, the pair separate and are swept up in the chaos bursting out of Seoul Station. Hye-sun witnesses and narrowly escapes a bloodbath up close at the local police station, while Ki-woong's search for Hye-sun is bolstered by the appearance of Suk-gyu. As the trio race around town to flee the undead and find each other, they run into extreme measures put in place to contain what the authorities consider an insurrection. The undead and the survivors find themselves up against barricades manned by fully armed soldiers with their tanks, water cannons and live ammunition.[9]

Cast

Reception

Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a simple, thrilling ride through a fiend-infested world."[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Seoul Station Director YEON Sang-ho". koreanfilm.or.kr. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  2. ↑ "Seoul Station Director YEON Sang-ho". koreanfilm.or.kr. Retrieved 2016-09-14.
  3. 1 2 Tsui, Clarence (August 1, 2016). "'Seoul Station' ('Seoul-yeok'): Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 2, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Seoul Station". allocine.fr (in French). Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  5. ↑ "Seoul Station". filmaffinity.com. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  6. 1 2 "Seoul Station". edfilmfest.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  7. ↑ "Animation prequel of 'Train to Busan' to hit theaters in August!". allkpop.com. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  8. ↑ "Cannes Hidden Gem: South Korean Animator Makes Apocalyptic Live-Action Debut With 'Train to Busan'". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  9. 1 2 3 4
  10. ↑ "Ryu Seung-ryong headlines disaster movie Seoul Station". dramabeans.com. Retrieved 2016-05-07.


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