Train to Busan

Train to Busan

English Theatrical Poster
Hangul 부산행
Hanja 釜山行
Revised Romanization Busanhaeng
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho
Produced by Lee Dong-ha
Written by Park Joo-suk
Starring
Music by Jang Young-gyu
Cinematography Lee Hyung-deok
Edited by Yang Jin-mo
Production
company
Distributed by Next Entertainment World (South Korea)
Well Go USA Entertainment (United States)
StudioCanal (United Kingdom)
Release dates
  • 13 May 2016 (2016-05-13) (Cannes)
  • 20 July 2016 (2016-07-20) (South Korea)
  • 22 July 2016 (2016-07-22) (United States)
  • 28 October 2016 (2016-10-28) (United Kingdom)
  • 24 November 2016 (2016-11-24) (Chile)
Running time
 118 minutes
Country South Korea
Language Korean
Box office US$99.32 million[1]

Train to Busan (Hangul: 부산행; RR: Busanhaeng) is a 2016 South Korean zombie apocalypse horror thriller film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi and Ma Dong-seok.[2] The film had its premiere in the Midnight Screenings section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on 13 May.[3][4][5][6] On 7 August, the film set a record as the first Korean film of 2016 to break the audience record with over 10 million theatergoers.[7][8]

An animated prequel, Seoul Station, was released less than a month later. The film serves as a reunion for Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi who both starred in the 2011 film The Crucible.

Plot

Seok-Woo, a divorced fund manager, plans to take his daughter Su-an to her mother in Busan as her birthday gift. They board the KTX at a station in Seoul, which is also occupied by the tough working-class husband Sang-hwa and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong, a high school baseball team, rich but selfish CEO Yon-suk, elderly sisters In-gil and Jon-gil, and a homeless man.

As the train departs, a spasming young woman boards the train with a bite wound on her leg. The woman succumbs to the bite and becomes a zombie, attacking a female train attendant. The zombie infection spreads through the train, including the baseball team, but baseball player Yong-guk, his girlfriend Jin-hee, two of their friends, and several passengers manage to escape. News broadcasts report zombie outbreaks throughout Korea. The train stops at Daejeon, but the surviving passengers find the city has also been overrun, and they retreat back to the train, splitting up in the process. The conductor restarts the train to head to Busan, where a successful quarantine zone has reportedly been established.

Seok-Woo, Sang-hwa and Yong-guk fight their way to where Su-an, In-gil, and Seong-kyeong are hiding, and together they make their way to the front train car, where the other passengers are sheltering. However, Yon-suk and the other passengers deliberately block the survivors from entering. Sang-hwa and In-gil sacrifice themselves to give the others time to force open the door and enter the train car. Fearing that the newcomers may be infected with the zombie pathogen, Yon-suk and the other passengers demand that they isolate themselves in another part of the car. Jong-gil deliberately opens the door to the zombies to be with her zombified sister In-gil. The zombies enter and kill the passengers, but Yon-suk and the train attendant escapes the onslaught.

A blocked track at East Daegu train station forces the survivors to stop and search for another train. In the process, Seok Woo, Seong Kyeong, Su-An, Yong-guk, Jin-hee, and the homeless man are split after a burning train knocks over train cars, separating them. Yon-Suk escapes the train after giving the train attendant to the zombies. Yon-Suk catches up and throws Jin-Hee to a pursuing zombie. Yong-Guk throws the zombie away and tries to comfort Jin-Hee but gets bitten by her after she zombifies. The train conductor finds and starts a locomotive on another track, but is also killed by zombies while trying to rescue Yon-suk in which he got bitten. The homeless man sacrifices himself to let Seok-woo, Su-an and Seong-kyeong escape into the train the conductor had activated. They encounter Yon-suk in the engine room on the locomotive on the edge of turning into a zombie. Seok-woo fights off the zombified Yon-suk, but is himself bitten. He deliberately throws himself off the locomotive to his death.

Su-an and Seong-kyeong ride the locomotive to Busan, where they are eventually rescued by the soldiers there.

Cast

Reception

Box office

Train to Busan grossed $99 million worldwide.[1] It became the highest-grossing Korean film in Malaysia ($4.84 million),[9] Hong Kong ($8.52 million),[10] and Singapore ($3.1 million).[11] It recorded more than 11 million movie goers in South Korea.[12]

Critical reception

Train to Busan has received generally positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 96% approval rating based on 57 collected reviews, with an average rating of 7.6 out of 10. The site's 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".[13] 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".[14] Clark Collis of Entertainment Weekly writes 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."[15] The film receives a coveted "The New York Times Critics' Pick" badge, with reviewer Jeannette Catsoulis taking notice of the film's subtle class warfare.[16]

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."[17] Kevin Jagernauth of The Playlist writes: "(Train to Busan) doesn’t add anything significant to the zombie genre, nor has anything perceptive to say about humanity in the face of crisis. Sure, it lacks brains, and that’s the easy quip to make, but what Train To Busan truly needs, and disappointingly lacks, is heart."[18]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Recipient Result
2016 25th Buil Film Awards Best Film Train to Busan Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Kim Eui-sung Won
Best Supporting Actress Jung Yu-mi Nominated
Best Cinematography Lee Hyeong-deok Nominated
Best Art Direction Lee Mok-won Nominated
Yu Hyun-mok Film Arts Award Yeon Sang-ho Won
37th Blue Dragon Film Awards Best Film Train to Busan Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Kim Eui-sung Nominated
Ma Dong-seok Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Jung Yu-mi Nominated
Best New Director Yeon Sang-ho Nominated
Best Art Direction Lee Mok-won Nominated
Best Screenplay Park Joo-seok Nominated
Best Editing Yang Jin-mo Nominated
Best Cinematography Lee Hyeong-deok Nominated
Best Lighting Park Jeong-woo Nominated
Technical Award Kwak Tae-yong and Hwang Hyo-gyoon (Special makeup) Won
Audience Choice Award for Most Popular Film Train to Busan Won

References

  1. 1 2 "Busanhaeng (2016)". The Numbers. Retrieved Sep 16, 2016.
  2. ↑ Kay, Jeremy (9 June 2016). "Well Go USA Entertainment boards 'Train To Busan'". Screen Daily. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "Cannes 2016: Film Festival Unveils Official Selection Lineup". Variety. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  4. ↑ "'Train to Busan' to screen at Cannes". The Korea Times.
  5. ↑ "Zombies fail to impress in 'Train to Busan'". 19 July 2016.
  6. ↑ Chen, Heather (3 August 2016). "Train to Busan: Zombie film takes S Korea by storm". BBC News. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  7. ↑ notclaira (2016-08-07). ""Train To Busan" Is The First Korean Film Of 2016 To Break This Audience Record". Soompi. Retrieved 2016-08-07.
  8. ↑ Byun, Hee-won. "Korean Movies Prove Box-Office Gold". The Chosun Ilbo. Chosun Media. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  9. ↑ Begum, Mumtaj. "'Train to Busan' speeds away to box-office record". The Star. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  10. ↑ Chu, Karen. "South Korean Zombie Hit 'Train to Busan' Becomes Highest-Grossing Asian Film in Hong Kong". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  11. ↑ Wai Yee, Yip (August 24, 2016). "Train To Busan is No. 1 at Singapore box office and top Korean movie to date". The Straits Times. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Zombie Movie 'Train to Busan' Passes 11 Million-Viewer Mark". The Chosun Ilbo. 2016-08-19. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
  13. ↑ "Train to Busan (Bu-san-haeng)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Train to Busan Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  15. ↑ Collis, Clark. "Train to Busan: EW review". Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly, Inc. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  16. ↑ Jeannette, Catsoulis. "Review: All Aboard 'Train to Busan' for Zombie and Class Warfare". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  17. ↑ Ehrlich, David. "'Train To Busan' Review: This Electric Korean Zombie Movie Goes Off The Rails". IndieWire. Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  18. ↑ Jagernauth, Kevin. "Korean Zombie Thriller 'Train To Busan' Needs More Brains [Review]". The Playlist. Spin Entertainment. Retrieved 6 September 2016.

External links

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