A Powerful Story About Humanity with All Its Good and Bad

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2018)

Wow. I'm still crying. This movie was beautiful. I don't mean that aesthetically because as a zombie movie, with all the gore that comes with the genre, it's not pretty to look at. The zombies are all very gross, satisfyingly so to a zombie aficionado but undoubtedly a bit much for the average person. The zombie deer in particular is NASTY the way it twists itself back onto its feet after being hit by the car. But the zombies aren't the point of the movie and aren't why the film is beautiful so I'll move on.
This film explores both innate human selfishness and innate human selflessness in both aspects. Our main character is a father who spends too much time working and not enough time with his (ADORABLE!!!) daughter. He's made himself such a stranger to his child that he buys her a Wii which she already has, and from what I was given to understand he purchased for her a previous holiday(though that may be wrong as I don't speak Korean and the subtitles went by fast). At one point Dear Old Dad flat out tells his kid to only look out for herself, not to do anything as simply kind as to give her seat up to an elderly woman. So Dad starts off in a very selfish place and then there's the other guy, whose name I didn't care to catch, some suited jerk that LEAVES PEOPLE TO THE ZOMBIES REPEATEDLY. Wow, why is it always like that in zombie movies? If the zombie apocalypse does happen, I'm going to be sorely tempted to kick any dude in a suit out of my space before he screws me over. Anyway the selfishness of humanity is on full display when Suit Jerk convinces a car full of people not to help the elderly woman, a pregnant woman and her husband, Dad and his daughter, and some poor kid. He actually gets them kicked out of the car for no reason than his own selfishness and fear. Suit Jerk also sacrifices two train employees to make his escape and throws a teenage girl to the zombies. What a sorry excuse for a human being! But that's selfishness for you and that's not what makes the movie beautiful so I must move on.
It's the kindness and selflessness of multiple characters that won my heart, made this movie a beautiful story and caused me to give it 5 stars. It starts small, the little girl giving up her seat to the old woman but it grows. Dad shakes off his bad attitude after being called out by the Father to Be of the Pregnant Lady's baby and he starts actively helping to save people. Father to Be later pulls a heroic sacrifice to hold a door so the group can get into a train car that doesn't contain zombies, but before he does he shouts to his wife what their child's name will be. I cried. I still am sniffling. And the sports kid, he goes on a mission to free Dad's daughter, the Pregnant Lady and the old woman from a train bathroom with no benefit to himself. He does it because it's The Right Thing To Do. And I can't forget the disheveled guy, this poor man spends half his time tripping or alerting the zombies by making unintentional noise and he pulls another heroic sacrifice to save the girl and Pregnant Lady. IF YOU AREN'T CRYING THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU.
In fact, helping others is the only way anybody stays alive. Everyone who makes selfish choices not only dies, but causes the deaths of those around them(Suit Jerk gets the whole train car full of people eaten). Yes the selfless choice of sacrifice also gets some people killed but they knowingly give their lives so others can go on. The reward is that others live. That's what makes this movie beautiful, it looks at the lesson Dad attempted to teach his daughter at the beginning and it goes "No. Humanity does not survive by looking out for only yourself. Humanity survives by virtue of the courage to help others, to give, to GO BACK FOR PEOPLE, to be a HERO." In a time where it is fashionable to put forth stories where #1 looks out for only #1, where you are told that some people are too slow, useless and not worth the effort, this movie makes the case that salvation is not earned by abandoning your fellow man but earned through being willing to look past yourself and Do What Is Right.
And I'm sure there's symbolism to be found in the child and woman passing through the dark tunnel and being saved by the child singing but I'm too sad(in a good way) by the movie's end to figure it out.