Overrated Korea

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2017)

"28 Days later", "28 Weeks Later", and both George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead"and "Dawn of the Dead" (And also Zack Snyder's remake) – these are the great movies of the horror-zombie genre; although we could all agree that Romero started it all. Then in 2016, in the south of Korea, we got another zombie flick. I can't tell on how this movie was being received worldwide, but here in Singapore, the 'praises' for it is a bit overdone in my opinion. The result is predictable as neo-musical genre 'K-POP' is popular here. So, any entertainment that shows intimacy with the mentioned phenomenon, will get extra attention.
A young fund manager (Gong Yoo) agrees to bring his daughter (Kim Su-an) to Busan to visit her mother. Since the child's parents are separated, I assume the two parties occasionally meet one another. From the start to the point upon the boarding of the train for Busan, the movie is well made. 'Zombies' in norm only needs one infected for the thrill to start. Hence, in "Train to Busan" an infected manages to secretly board the train.
Director Yeon Sang-ho's effort in exploiting small details can easily be admired. The images of emergency vehicles, the all- encompassing violent fires at the near top of a building and ashes steadily settling down from it – all allow audiences to sense something unsound had happened, although we all know that it is the omnipresent of zombie outbreak.
That's it. After the first zombie begins to bite, the movie goes into a nosedive motion. Action sequences are surprisingly bland; I cannot specifically describe on what's lacking but it lacks genuine excitement. The writing for the characters too shares the same fate (especially the villain) as they are clichéd. What "Train to Busan" tried to depict on the 'colours' of its characters had already been done by dozens of movies before; worst when it lays out that idea before our very eyes and never challenges the audiences. And visual style is straight terrible. The only element which remains to be positive is the effective use of suspense throughout the movie.
As a zombie-genre fan, I quickly got for myself a ticket to experience it at the cinema but only to leave the hall feeling disappointed. My criticism does not mean I abhor Korean movies. Movie fans in general would know that Koreans had made great films for the past years. One of them is "I Saw the Devil" by Kim Jee- Woon, which is a masterpiece in any way. But unfortunately this "Train to Busan" is vastly overrated.
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