I heard (later than everyone else of course) that the Korean film 'Train to Busan' (2016) is the absolute bomb so when I found out there was an animated prequel of sorts, I thought I would watch that first.
Release Date: August 2016
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Production Company: Studio Dadashow
Distributors: Finecut and Next Entertainment World
Voice Actors: Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung and Lee Joon
Running time: 92min
Now we say prequel in the same way the Fear the Walking Dead is a prequel to The Walking Dead.
They're getting more tied in together now of course but for the most part it's same universe, just earlier on. Also FTWD sucks and I hate all of the characters. ANYWAY. It's apparently set one day prior to the events of Train to Busan.
For the record - even though this is a horror movie and a lot of the tone is muted, damn if it doesn't have some beautiful setting shots.
So off the bat, this movie is set at the onset of the whole zombie outbreak so it's a little slow to start as you'd expect. That said, the focus on the homeless, sick and downtrodden makes it interesting and gives it an edge most zombie flicks don't have. Plus I'm into that sort of off beat thing.
Our protagonist Hye-Sun has had an especially rough time of it. She ran away from home, has finally gotten out of a brothel only to be pimped out by her boyfriend to pay the rent before they're kicked out of home and is left completely homeless again when she refuses.
Suk-Gyu hears about Hye-Sun's probable whereabouts from someone who has seen a notice.
Through an online ad for services, Suk-Gyu approaches Ki-Woong and tells him to help him find his daughter or he would thrash him one.
The majority of the movie is these two characters trying to find Hye-Sun. Hye-Sun meanwhile has teamed up with a homeless man she met during her first encounter and escape from the zombies.
This movie is in depth with the shoddy situation the homeless in Seoul are in. We see it in their eyes as they watch their dirty child play with his lone toy, we see them drunk, prostituting themselves for a pittance of money, the contempt that workers have for them and the absolute disdain that the armed forces have for them.
The first character we see is the basically the patient zero of this film.
I'm trying to be spoiler free but this essentially happens in the opening shot so it's not exactly a secret. Passersby realise the old man is injured and go to help but then stop when they realise he's just a homeless guy. His friend tries to seek help from a medical shelter but receives nothing but threats from the recovered patients who are now back on the street. He tries to get assistance from the staff at the train station where many homeless shelter - but they just insult him and leave the scene when they have a pool of blood but no body to speak of.
This naturally leads to the infection spreading when old mate turns up. We don't get any idea of what happened to cause the infection. We do get a insensitive speaker announcement telling the homeless to shut up when they're running away from zombies and dying. Like, those guys are terrible security personnel.
Not that the cops are any better - assuming that the homeless have risen up against the government and are attacking people. Maybe that could be more believable than zombies in the real world, but geez, in the face of these things?
Their actions lead to ineffective and terrifying quarantines instead of action that could have been taken to halt the spread of the infection.
Things I did not like:
Granted, these are staple zombie movie actions but it doesn't make them any less infuriating.
*Suk-Gyu closes a door in terror and someone is heard pounding violently on said door. Shortly after that, Suk-Gyu is panicked and asking for weapons. Ki-Woong opens the damn door for some stupid reason.
*Hye-Sun runs through several doors while being chased and doesn't even TRY to close one or two to slow her undead pursuers down
*Hye-Sun has spoken to Ki-Woong and tells him exactly where she's headed to. About five seconds later, she finds out that she's not going to that undead hotspot and is about to head elsewhere. She does not attempt to contact Ki-Woong to update him, even knowing how much danger he would be in if he went there looking for her.
*Mobile phones are always being dropped, out of signal etc.
*Hye-Sun finally finds somewhere safe - and makes no effort to barricade herself or even close a door just in case.
My biggest personal annoyance in the movie is Hye-Sun's running style. Man, it seems like I'm really picking on her, doesn't it? I get it, not everyone's a runner but good gravy, we have zombies - FAST ZOMBIES - and we do not have time for this limp wristed half effort. She's half the age of the homeless guys she's with and looks to be in better health than them.. so if they're running properly, so can she! Even the zombies have a run cycle! Even so, it takes half the movie for her to realise she needs to MOVE.
Things I did quite like:
* The art style. People seemed to move like... well... people. Sometimes with Japanese anime and other animated shows you can get scenes where one or two characters just don't react at all, like they suddenly ran out of budget. This movie has a lot of wild gesturing but if you can look past that you'll see a lot of human reactions like shuffling, facial twitches, unique walk cycles and realistic crying etc.
* The zombies were genuinely scary. As well as that in the absence of stimuli they went back to really being zombies which I thought was cool.
* The drama with the armed forces - genuinely made the movie a lot scarier when you realise that there is a genuine chance the armed forces will kill the non-zombiefied humans because they misunderstood the threat.
* Twist ending - or is it? If you watch closely, there are so many hints through out the movie that lead up to the ending that it shouldn't be a twist at all.
So in my opinion, definitely worth the watch if you're a fan of animated movie, zombie films and of course both of the above. It was nice to see the effects of the outbreak lead to subtle but important character development for the main characters and I thought that the action shots they chose to do were realistic for an average person in that situation.
There were definitely some edge of your seat moments along with the "Don't go in there!" bits but the most horror came from how REAL their situations seemed. There aren't any dodgy jump scare bits, it's all just situational.
Release Date: August 2016
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Production Company: Studio Dadashow
Distributors: Finecut and Next Entertainment World
Voice Actors: Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung and Lee Joon
Running time: 92min
Now we say prequel in the same way the Fear the Walking Dead is a prequel to The Walking Dead.
They're getting more tied in together now of course but for the most part it's same universe, just earlier on. Also FTWD sucks and I hate all of the characters. ANYWAY. It's apparently set one day prior to the events of Train to Busan.
For the record - even though this is a horror movie and a lot of the tone is muted, damn if it doesn't have some beautiful setting shots.
So off the bat, this movie is set at the onset of the whole zombie outbreak so it's a little slow to start as you'd expect. That said, the focus on the homeless, sick and downtrodden makes it interesting and gives it an edge most zombie flicks don't have. Plus I'm into that sort of off beat thing.
Our protagonist Hye-Sun has had an especially rough time of it. She ran away from home, has finally gotten out of a brothel only to be pimped out by her boyfriend to pay the rent before they're kicked out of home and is left completely homeless again when she refuses.
Ki-Woong is said boyfriend - a deadbeat who prefers to advertise his girlfriend's services without her consent instead of getting a job. He likes to spend his time at computer kiosks which does nothing to help their money situation, leaving them constantly late with the rent and due to be kicked out on the street any day now.
Suk-Gyu hears about Hye-Sun's probable whereabouts from someone who has seen a notice.
Through an online ad for services, Suk-Gyu approaches Ki-Woong and tells him to help him find his daughter or he would thrash him one.
The majority of the movie is these two characters trying to find Hye-Sun. Hye-Sun meanwhile has teamed up with a homeless man she met during her first encounter and escape from the zombies.
This movie is in depth with the shoddy situation the homeless in Seoul are in. We see it in their eyes as they watch their dirty child play with his lone toy, we see them drunk, prostituting themselves for a pittance of money, the contempt that workers have for them and the absolute disdain that the armed forces have for them.
The first character we see is the basically the patient zero of this film.
I'm trying to be spoiler free but this essentially happens in the opening shot so it's not exactly a secret. Passersby realise the old man is injured and go to help but then stop when they realise he's just a homeless guy. His friend tries to seek help from a medical shelter but receives nothing but threats from the recovered patients who are now back on the street. He tries to get assistance from the staff at the train station where many homeless shelter - but they just insult him and leave the scene when they have a pool of blood but no body to speak of.
This naturally leads to the infection spreading when old mate turns up. We don't get any idea of what happened to cause the infection. We do get a insensitive speaker announcement telling the homeless to shut up when they're running away from zombies and dying. Like, those guys are terrible security personnel.
Not that the cops are any better - assuming that the homeless have risen up against the government and are attacking people. Maybe that could be more believable than zombies in the real world, but geez, in the face of these things?
 |
| THIS IS CLEARLY MORE THAN A RANDOM RAMPAGE! |
Things I did not like:
Granted, these are staple zombie movie actions but it doesn't make them any less infuriating.
*Suk-Gyu closes a door in terror and someone is heard pounding violently on said door. Shortly after that, Suk-Gyu is panicked and asking for weapons. Ki-Woong opens the damn door for some stupid reason.
*Hye-Sun runs through several doors while being chased and doesn't even TRY to close one or two to slow her undead pursuers down
*Hye-Sun has spoken to Ki-Woong and tells him exactly where she's headed to. About five seconds later, she finds out that she's not going to that undead hotspot and is about to head elsewhere. She does not attempt to contact Ki-Woong to update him, even knowing how much danger he would be in if he went there looking for her.
*Mobile phones are always being dropped, out of signal etc.
*Hye-Sun finally finds somewhere safe - and makes no effort to barricade herself or even close a door just in case.
My biggest personal annoyance in the movie is Hye-Sun's running style. Man, it seems like I'm really picking on her, doesn't it? I get it, not everyone's a runner but good gravy, we have zombies - FAST ZOMBIES - and we do not have time for this limp wristed half effort. She's half the age of the homeless guys she's with and looks to be in better health than them.. so if they're running properly, so can she! Even the zombies have a run cycle! Even so, it takes half the movie for her to realise she needs to MOVE.Things I did quite like:
* The art style. People seemed to move like... well... people. Sometimes with Japanese anime and other animated shows you can get scenes where one or two characters just don't react at all, like they suddenly ran out of budget. This movie has a lot of wild gesturing but if you can look past that you'll see a lot of human reactions like shuffling, facial twitches, unique walk cycles and realistic crying etc.
* The zombies were genuinely scary. As well as that in the absence of stimuli they went back to really being zombies which I thought was cool.
* The drama with the armed forces - genuinely made the movie a lot scarier when you realise that there is a genuine chance the armed forces will kill the non-zombiefied humans because they misunderstood the threat.
* Twist ending - or is it? If you watch closely, there are so many hints through out the movie that lead up to the ending that it shouldn't be a twist at all.
There were definitely some edge of your seat moments along with the "Don't go in there!" bits but the most horror came from how REAL their situations seemed. There aren't any dodgy jump scare bits, it's all just situational.
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