A Train to Busan Movie

A Train to Busan Movie

Plot Synopsis

The Train to Busan movie is a thrilling and horrifying story of a group of passengers on a train in the country of South Korea who are struggling with a zombie outbreak that is spreading very fast in their country. The situation is made worse by the virus moving from car to car. This movie elicits a cocktail of emotions, including excitement, fear, and some displeasure. It is set up in South Korea, where there is a group of passengers who are stuck and stranded in a train during the zombie outbreak. The premise in this movie is unique and different from other films in the zombie sub-genre. The isolation aspect introduced in this movie makes it so unpredictable and unique from the other horror movies.

The characters in this movie are different and highly unpredictable. The director of the film makes it hard to make predictions on who will either live or die. For instance, looking at the outstanding character Yoo Gong, he is serviceable but not very engaging while Dong-Seok Ma is interchangeable and can be easily forgotten. In certain parts of the movie, the actors appear stranded not knowing what to do next, but it could be part of the plot for this movie. Yeon, the screen director, does a fantastic job with the screenplay. The film begins with intense action in the first minutes of the play to the end. It keeps the writer at the edge with nothing left to chance. There is a bit of exaggeration and reminiscence in some parts of the movie, although this aspect does not negate the thrill in it.

Historical Background of the Movie

A train to Busan was created at a time when Asian horror movies were described as less scary and lacking the appropriate thrill of a good horror movie. People had low regard for such movies, especially the local ones. It is a horror movie filmed in 2016 in South Korea that introduced the world to a new kind of zombie different from the usual slow, foolish, and half-alive creatures that feature in most horror movies. The aspect of zombies has always been treated as a case of a viral outbreak or what happens after people die. The zombies in this movie are traced to a biological leak at a factory in South Korea shown at the beginning of the movie. Around this place, a deer was struck by an oncoming car and reincarnated as a zombie.

The passengers on the train thought they were safe. However, as the train moved on, a passenger who was infected with this virus boarded the train, and this was the start of their calamities. The zombies in this movie are different from those in other movies. Their characteristics include being considerably intelligent, very fast, and they thrive in light and not darkness. The zombies could not attack the passengers when they covered their windows with papers. The movie is also a depiction of the atrocities that were taking place during that time.

Investment into the Movie

The Next Entertainment World used about ten million dollars to produce the Train to Busan movie. This movie hit the theatres with a bang with close to ten million people watching it the weekend after its release. This weekend was enough to recover the amount spent on producing it. It was released at a very opportune time when movie theatres were a place of solace for many people. This movie attracted international audiences that were a boost to the proceeds from it.

High-quality technology and technique were employed in the development of this movie. The producer employed the art of animations to improve some aspects of the movie. The concept of using zombies was a bit technical considering the kind that was in this movie. It was a complex piece to come up with, but it was a game-changer in the film industry. As the movie penetrated the industry, American filmmakers came up with DVDs and CDs that availed this movie to quite a larger audience. The distribution and production of this movie were quite remarkable.

The Uniqueness of the Movie

Hollywood movies have, for a long time, invaded the movie space in most countries. However, the Train to Busan was a game-changer in the movie space. Most of the Korean zombie thriller gained little or no international attention, but the train to Busan brought many to its attention. It has an interesting mix of symbolic cinematography and very imaginative storylines. Unlike other zombie films, the train to Busan film was explicit about the emerging issues of the increased gaps among the socioeconomic classes in South Korea (Lee, p.160). The origin of the zombie attack remains unknown, but it is highly suspected to have originated from South Korea. The origin of most movies is known, unlike for the Train to Busan, which remains unknown (Koo).

It highlights key societal issues like preconceptions on which person to die or live in case of a challenging situation like the zombie-attack in the rain. This aspect is illustrated by the son and daughter in the play who are braving the storm of the zombie attack on the train among other passengers. It is rated as one of the outstanding horror movies to ever be. Asian horror movies are mostly associated with Japan, but the Train to Busan film was a game-changer for South Korea. It is unique because it opened up the world to the film side of South Korea. Many people developed an interest in the local horror movies, which had, for a long time, been deemed not scary enough. However, a remake of this film by Hollywood poses a major threat to its authenticity.

On face value, this movie had all the predictable elements of a zombie story. However, it was unique because such a film had not been witnessed in the South Korean history of film making. It perfectly displayed the challenges and atrocities that were faced by South Korea at the time, like corruption, economic disparity, and the Middle East respiratory syndrome, which had affected most parts of South Korea. It was a perfect display of the ‘dog-eat-dog kind’ of society (Höglund). The technology behind the development of this film was amazing. The visuals and the special effects were excellent, not to forget the amazing screenplay that had everyone glued on the screen to the end. The train, which was the setting of this movie was commendable as some of the viewers related to it. Some people watch the movie because of the special attachment they have with their setting. The train to Busan movie is unique in all ways contributing to its popularity in the world.

Conclusion

A Train to Busan was a movie that revolutionized the movie industry in South Korea. It was unique in many ways, an aspect that attracted large audiences in most movie theatres. The investment put in coming up with the movie was recovered on the first weekend after its production owing to the millions of people who showed up in the movie theatres to watch it. It opened up South Korea to the international world because many people were thrilled with the movie. It also changed the narrative of how people view Asian movies. Most of these movies were less scary, but a train to Busan beat them all. This movie also faced the risk of being retaken by Hollywood filmmakers.

The movie was based on a leak that happened in a biological factory where zombies facilitated the spread of the virus. Zombies are key features in this movie. They are different from other zombies in other horror movies as they stand out as more intelligent, they traveled very fast, and they were more accustomed to light unlike they were to darkness. The passengers on the train got the virus after a traveler who was infected with the virus boarded it. The key characters of the movie are the passengers, a man and his daughter who were fighting for their lives as they fought the pandemic. Societal values and principles come into play in this movie as atrocities like corruption and undermining class issues are well captured in this movie. This is truly a movie to behold.

Work Cited

Höglund, Johan. “Eat the Rich: Pandemic Horror Cinema.” Transtext (e) s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化. Journal of Global Cultural Studies 12 (2017).

Koo, Luisa. “National Cinema, Trauma, and Melodrama in the Korean Zombie Film Train to Busan (2016).” The Spaces and Places of Horror (2020): 165.

Lee, Sung-Ae. “The New Zombie Apocalypse and Social Crisis in South Korean Cinema.” Coolabah 27 (2019): 150-166.

https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/details/Train-to-Busan/823460