Must See: Train to Busan

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Run for your life! That's what this movie is all about.  I'm sure you'll tense up in your seat while watching zombies going on a feeding frenzy scrambling for human snacks.

It's an apocalyptic movie depicting the spread of the "zombie" virus in Korea. Fast forward to the scary part, the infection would reach the train where the main characters are riding. The main characters involve a father and his daughter (played by actor Gong Yoo and Kim Soo-Ahn). He had a lukewarm relationship with her, because he was too preoccupied with work. The daughter was living with him.  He was also estranged with his wife.  

At the beginning of the movie, his daughter was insisting to see her mother who lives in Busan, because she will be celebrating her birthday. The father concedes to the request of the daughter, and both were on the way to the train station while the zombie virus infection was already spreading across the country.  Both father and daughter were still clueless.

Using the train as a centerpiece for the movie was simply genius. Imagine, trapped inside a moving train with a horde of zombies out to eat the passengers.  The movie creator made it more interesting and added a twist, by separating families and friends inside the train. 

The suspense was already progressing when they had boarded the train and an "infected" managed to slip inside. As the infection rages inside the train, it  was a picture of mayhem with all the infected eating everyone inside the train.  Those not yet infected, shocked by the turn of events and at the same time pumping adrenaline, were involved in a game of trying not to be eaten.

The other characters, passengers sharing the train ride to Busan, went through a lot, and one by one, they were devoured by zombies leaving the father and daughter with another survivor - a pregnant woman (Jung Yu-mi) whose husband (played by Ma Dong Seok) sacrificed himself to allow her to survive.  

Finally the father, who had also become infected kills himself so that he won't eat her daughter (this is the sob part), leaving the little girl and the pregnant woman to fend for themselves the rest of the way to Busan.  I thought both won't survive, but the movie spared them. I felt relieved because the movie ended with a small ray of hope.

The movie revealed two faces of humanity.  One  is utter "selfishness" for those who wanted badly to survive and did not care who gets eaten. The other is "selflessness" which is giving up your life for others. The movie also added love for family in the most trying times (fighting that your family would not eaten by zombies). It has a distinct Asian flavor that us "Pinoys" would go for.

The story had a way of stirring up your emotion as a viewer - fear and sadness. Which makes it so engaging. I say it's great when I squirm in my seat when the scene is super scary. And when I can't hold back my tears and pretending my eyes were itchy when it's a tear jerker part of the movie.

Overall, I enjoyed watching the movie. The trip to the movie house and the 200 bucks we forked out each, was all worth it! Thumbs up to Korea for their contribution to the Zombie genre movies!

It's a must see movie, so hurry before Wednesday next week, because I think the movie houses will changeover to new movie releases.

By the way "Busan" is located at the southeastern tip of the south Korean Peninsula.

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