Gong Yoo 공유 | ★ Upcoming Drama: Squid Game season 2 (2024)★

[Noor90]

Review: All Aboard ‘Train to Busan’ for Zombie and Class Warfare

Elite passengers on a South Korean bullet train face a twitching, hissing threat from the cheap seats in “Train to Busan,” a public-transportation horror movie with a side helping of class warfare.

The setup is lean and clean. A flattened deer, mowed down in a quarantine zone in Seoul where some kind of chemical spill has occurred (echoes of Bong Joon-ho’s 2007 enviro-horror film, “The Host”), springs back to life. Then, in just a few swiftly efficient scenes, we meet a harried hedge-fund manager and his small, sad daughter (Gong Yoo and an amazing Kim Su-ahn), see them settled on the titular locomotive and watch in dismay as a vividly unwell last-minute passenger lurches onboard. And we’re off!

printing right out of the gate, the director, Yeon Sang-ho, dives gleefully into a sandbox of spilled brains and smug entitlement. (“In the old days, they’d be re-educated,” one biddy remarks upon spying an undesirable fellow traveler.) As zombies chomp and multiply, an assortment of regular folks face them down while furthering an extended critique of corporate callousness. The politics are sweet, but it’s the creatures that divert. Eyes like Ping-Pong balls and spines like rubber — I’d wager more than a few chiropractors were required on the set — they attack in seizures of spastic energy. They’re like break-dancing corpses.

Often chaotic but never disorienting, the movie’s spirited set pieces — like a wriggling ribbon of undead clinging doggedly to the last compartment — owe much to Lee Hyung-deok’s wonderfully agile cinematography. Dipping and levitating, his camera injects air into tunnels and washrooms and luggage compartments, giving the action a hurtling vigor. Even more impressive is the train itself: marveling at its freakishly strong doors and dedicated staff, you might find yourself mourning the state of our own rail services more than the fate of the characters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/movies/train-to-busan-review.html?_r=0

[lkgy99]

pokemon are going to busan too 

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Gong Yoo discovery expedition store

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the age of shadows

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Quick Korean zombies take 'Train to Busan' for station-to-station action

it’s chew-chew on the choo-choo with “Train to Busan,” a Korean zombie flick from Yeon Sang-ho (“The King of Pigs”) that has more in common with high-speed disaster films and train thrillers than slow-walking undead sagas. Animator Yeon’s first feature-length live-action movie takes its sweet time establishing its core besieged characters — namely a workaholic divorced dad (Gong Yoo) and the neglected daughter (Kim Su-an) he’s taking to visit mom — before they board at Seoul for the trek to Busan, as hints of unrest and “workers’ strikes” percolate ominously on nearby screens.

When the one infected passenger who sneaks aboard becomes many, the drama of group dynamics takes over, as Irwin Allen decreed it. Yeon gets a lot of mileage — comic and tragic — out of the dwindling survivors’ reactions. But the key to the fun is that Yeon eschews lookie-loo gore for thrilling set pieces: his fleet, imaginative action scenes recall Brad Bird’s crisp transition to real people in peril when he made his “Mission Impossible” movie.

Yeon’s zombies are a quick-turning, fierce horde who aren’t smart enough to open an unlocked compartment door, but they move faster than blazes and clump like bees if necessary. Though there’s plenty of emotion as loved ones succumb to that awful bite, “Train to Busan” is really a feast for the scary, gymnastic bit players: contorting their bodies, baring teeth and running full bore. On this express, they’re a first-class menace indeed.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-mini-train-to-busan-review-20160718-snap-story.html

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'Train to Busan' director defends Sohee's acting controversy





Source: Herald Pop via Nate

1. [+1,163, -186] Ah... Ajusshi... what're you talking about. Her acting was no different from Dongho's infamous "I'm sorry, please save me" acting.

2. [+994, -194] I can sense her bad acting from the pictures alone, why blame it on her image? ㅋㅋㅋ

3. [+887, -103] Her Wonder Girls has nothing to do with it, she's just bad at acting director-nim

4. [+100, -16] She left the group such a long time ago, why blame her WG image now...

5. [+93, -19] Does this man take us for fools...

6. [+76, -21] Well obviously the director isn't going to admit that she was bad in his interview even though if we're being honest her acting was unbearable to watch

7. [+61, -14] I found her acting pretty bad. I saw it in theaters with one other person and when her scene came out, we both looked at each other... and I'm sure you can tell why. We both wondered why they bothered casting her.

8. [+56, -53] So many people were hating on her so I went into the movie without an~y expectations, actually with a bias if anything, and I didn't find her acting to be deserving of hate, really.. Nothing made me uncomfortable. She performed up to par... I think people are just overly harsh.

9. [+47, -44] I saw the movie and she wasn't as awkward as the comments make her out to be. She was actually better than I thought in the last scene ㅋㅋ of course her acting isn't super good or anything but I think people saying she's a bad actor makes her seem even moreso

10. [+38, -12] Of all the rookie actresses they could've cast, it was Sohee... What a waste of my eyeballs to have watched that. She's disgustingly bad at acting...

11. [+31, -16] I couldn't help but cringe during her scenes...

12. [+30, -7] Sohee's agency is Key East, they're famous for their media play if you haven't noticed with Park Soo Jin yet. They obviously paid for her casting so why are we even expecting acting skills from her?

13. [+28, -8] Did the people saying her acting was okay actually even see the movie???? It was pretty damn bad

14. [+27, -6] I heard so many negative reviews about her acting that I went in with low expectations, probably why I didn't think it was that bad... definitely not Dongho level ㅋ although that scene where she picked up the phone was a bit bad

15. [+26, -11] Her tonality ㅡㅡ Gong Yoo's daughter Soo Ahn was a way better actor than her

http://netizenbuzz.blogspot.com.eg/2016/07/train-to-busan-director-defends-sohees.html

[lkgy99]

Director Yeon Sang Ho is asked if he was disappointed in Sohee's acting

Director Yeon Sang Ho of movie 'Train to Busan' had an interview with Herald POP on July 22!
On this day, he was asked about the acting skills of former idol, Sohee, who plays a female high school student named Jin Hee.  It appears there is some controversy about her acting in the film, but the director brushed this aside. "I didn't find [her acting] a shame at all," he said. "I'm not even sure from what aspect [her acting] is being called a shame. What I think is that Sohee's image as a singer of Wonder Girlsis strong, so talk like that is coming out, but in the movie, there was honestly no problem.  It was not only no problem but I actually thought she did well.  The character was not even one that showed many things, but what I find quite a success is that in the case of Sohee and Choi Woo Sik, it was important for them to show the levity of teenagers.

"Some people state that the conversations between Sohee and Woo Sik didn't seem sincere at all, but that reaction was the response I had envisioned from the start.  The way teenagers act is more light and fresh than sincere, isn't it?  I wanted it to be shown in a way that wasn't too sincere.  That's why I thought the scene of their exit would surprise the viewers even more.

"They'd be more traumatized when they're tossed aside like garbage because the teens they're portraying seem so immature, right?  An effect like that was necessary.  On that note, Sohee and Choi Woo Sik both acted extremely well.  There are many people who saw the movie who chose their exit as one of the scenes that made them sad."

Meanwhile, the movie came out back on July 20 and already 2.1 million viewers have flooded theaters to see the disaster movie!

http://www.allkpop.com/article/2016/07/director-yeon-sang-ho-is-asked-if-he-was-disappointed-in-sohees-acting

[lkgy99]

3rd day of screening Train to Busan is still #1 in Korean Box Office 

[lkgy99]

REVIEW: TRAIN TO BUSAN

 

Zombie movies are a dime a dozen. They’re usually easy to produce, have a rather decent sized and rabid fanbase, and have captured a slice of pop culture once again in recent years. They’re also frequently awful. Horror films suffer a lot in this way. Take some blood, throw in a few scares and some mindless characters that only exist to cease existing at some point, and you’ve got your horror movie. Personally, I’ve been waiting years for another great zombie film and it has finally arrived with Train to Busan.

The film follows Seok-woo (Gong Yoo), a divorced father who is always too busy at work to spend time with his daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an). Su-an’s birthday is coming and all she wants is to see her mother in Busan. It’s a 280 mile train trip from their location in Seoul, and Seok-woo doesn’t want to send Su-an on her own. He eventually agrees to go with her but just as their trip begins, reports of violent riots breaking out all over the city start appearing. It soon becomes obvious that these riots are because there is a viral outbreak creating zombies, and the passengers on the train are now trapped with a growing horde of zombies on the train. The only stop that seems to be safe is Busan, so it’s up to a small group of survivors to try and reach their final destination.

Train to Busan doesn’t quite break the expectations you may have of a zombie film. You get a group of diverse survivors, from young to old, who spend almost as much time fighting among themselves as they do battling zombies. There’s a charismatic hero in Sang-hwa (Ma Dong-seok who is immediately likeable), who wants to protect his pregnant wife (Jung Yu-mi), along with the manipulative villain of the group, Yong-suk (Kim Eui-sung). Throw in a few characters that you may want to survive, but know that they ultimately won’t, and you’ve got yourself a zombie movie.

It’s the little touches that make Train to Busan stand out though. Seok-woo may be the main protagonist, but he’s not the hero you would be expecting. His path may lead him to heroics, but it’s only through shame and guilt that he finds his way there. This is a great twist on the typical underdog must save the day kind of character that usually shows up in horror films. Those characters usually want to be the hero, but have never been able to pull themselves together long enough to do it. A dangerous situation gives them the chance. Seok-woo doesn’t want to be a hero. He simply wants to save himself and his daughter, even if it means sacrificing others. It’s only after he’s saved more times than you think he deserves that he starts to come around to the idea that helping others is the way to go.

Of course, no zombie film will be successful without some great corpses to rise from the dead and eat people, and Train to Busan does that brilliantly. There are shades of World War Z in how the zombies move. They occasionally are found to be rolling in waves towards victims, crawling over each other to get some fresh blood, and they’ll mindlessly throw themselves through windows and over balconies to achieve their goal. Separately, the zombies are brutal and quick. Praise should be heaped on the performers as they flip and flop on the ground, giving their all in physical performances that look like it would have been painful at times. They thrash around in madness, and it’s the most entertaining and frightening zombie performances put to film in years.

The somewhat claustrophobic setting of the train helps as well, and it’s only through a slight spin on what we know about zombies that the survivors can manage to stay alive for so long, especially in the close quarters of the train. Things occasionally move outside of the train, which gives the film a few moments of bigger and faster action to break up the relative calm of the train, which helps make the longer running time run more smoothly. The only problem comes close to the end, when a character’s terrible choice sets up the obvious ending. It’s not that the finale fails, it’s the way the film got there that is a bit annoying. That’s  a small
complaint for such an exciting, tense, and brutal zombie film though.

IS TRAIN TO BUSAN OPENING WEEKEND WORTHY?

It’s hard to find a zombie film that is worth the trip to the theatre, but fans will be kicking themselves if they miss out on this one. It’s got great tension, amazing zombie action, and characters that you can love and hate.
http://thetfs.ca/2016/07/22/review-train-busan/

[lkgy99]

Review: All Aboard ‘Train to Busan’ for Zombie and Class Warfare

 

Elite passengers on a South Korean bullet train face a twitching, hissing threat from the cheap seats in “Train to Busan,” a public-transportation horror movie with a side helping of class warfare.

The setup is lean and clean. A flattened deer, mowed down in a quarantine zone in Seoul where some kind of chemical spill has occurred (echoes of Bong Joon-ho’s 2007 enviro-horror film, “The Host”), springs back to life. Then, in just a few swiftly efficient scenes, we meet a harried hedge-fund manager and his small, sad daughter (Gong Yoo and an amazing Kim Su-ahn), see them settled on the titular locomotive and watch in dismay as a vividly unwell last-minute passenger lurches onboard. And we’re off!

Sprinting right out of the gate, the director, Yeon Sang-ho, dives gleefully into a sandbox of spilled brains and smug entitlement. (“In the old days, they’d be re-educated,” one biddy remarks upon spying an undesirable fellow traveler.) As zombies chomp and multiply, an assortment of regular folks face them down while furthering an extended critique of corporate callousness. The politics are sweet, but it’s the creatures that divert. Eyes like Ping-Pong balls and spines like rubber — I’d wager more than a few chiropractors were required on the set — they attack in seizures of spastic energy. They’re like break-dancing corpses.

Often chaotic but never disorienting, the movie’s spirited set pieces — like a wriggling ribbon of undead clinging doggedly to the last compartment — owe much to Lee Hyung-deok’s wonderfully agile cinematography. Dipping and levitating, his camera injects air into tunnels and washrooms and luggage compartments, giving the action a hurtling vigor. Even more impressive is the train itself: marveling at its freakishly strong doors and dedicated staff, you might find yourself mourning the state of our own rail services more than the fate of the characters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/movies/train-to-busan-review.html?partner=IFTTT&_r=0

[lkgy99]

Korean Box Office jul 22 

[lkgy99]

Top Critic

Brian Tallerico 
RogerEbert.com

 

July 22, 2016

The most purely entertaining zombie film in some time, finding echoes of George Romero's and Danny Boyle's work, but delivering something unique for an era in which kindness to others seems more essential than ever.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Top Critic

Robert Abele 
Los Angeles Times

 

July 22, 2016

"Train to Busan" is really a feast for the scary, gymnastic bit players: contorting their bodies, baring teeth and running full bore. On this express, they're a first-class menace indeed.

Full Review

Top Critic

Jeannette Catsoulis 
New York Times

 

July 21, 2016

Sprinting right out of the gate, the director, Yeon Sang-ho, dives gleefully into a sandbox of spilled brains and smug entitlement.

Full Review

Top Critic

Cary Darling 
Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com

 

July 21, 2016

Breathless and brutal, the film is akin to someone smashing together 28 Days Later with Snowpiercer and then convincing Mad Max's George Miller to help out on some of the action scenes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

 

Josh Bell 
Las Vegas Weekly

 

July 21, 2016

A big, effects-driven thriller with some very effective action sequences.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

 

Norman Wilner 
NOW Toronto

 

July 20, 2016

Yeon Sang-ho's Train To Busan is the best fast-zombie picture since the Dawn Of The Dead remake. It's also an awful lot of fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

 

Maitland McDonagh 
Film Journal International

 

July 20, 2016

A zombie outbreak aboard a packed bullet train pits passengers against flesh-eating monsters in this suspenseful genre picture aimed squarely at horror fans.

Full Review

 

Dennis Schwartz 
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

 

July 19, 2016

Well-executed tense zombie train ride thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: B

Top Critic

Leslie Felperin 
Hollywood Reporter

 

July 18, 2016

Yeon Sang-ho has instantly transformed himself into Korea's go-to-guy for zombie movies.

Full Review

Top Critic

David Ehrlich 
indieWIRE

 

July 18, 2016

For almost 45 minutes, Yeon Sang-ho's new film is on pace to become the best, most urgent zombie movie since 28 Days Later.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

 

Ed Gonzalez 
Slant Magazine

 

July 17, 2016

When divorced of message-mongering, the film's scare tactics are among the most distinctive that the zombie canon has ever seen.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

 

Katherine McLaughlin 
SciFiNow

 

May 26, 2016

Train To Busan is a viciously entertaining ride for the most part, but it's bookended with a needless introductory sequence and an extremely cheesy ending that borders on comical. Removal of these flaccid parts off would have made it a slicker journey.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

 

Jason Bechervaise 
Screen International

 

May 15, 2016

An entertaining ride, as well as providing political commentary when it overtly references the Korean government's response to the MERS virus alongside commenting on the country's class system.

Full Review

Top Critic

Maggie Lee 
Variety

 

May 15, 2016

"Train to Busan" pulses with relentless locomotive momentum.

Full Review

 

 

 

positive comments for Train to Busan from US journalists
 

[Noor90]

Train To Busan 

Yeon Sang-ho’s “Train to Busan” is the most purely entertaining zombie film in some time, finding echoes ofGeorge Romero’s and Danny Boyle’s work, but delivering something unique for an era in which kindness to others seems more essential than ever. For decades, movies about the undead have essentially been built on a foundation of fear of our fellow man—your neighbor may look and sound like you, but he wants to eat your brain—but “Train to Busan” takes that a step further by building on the idea that, even in our darkest days, we need to look out for each other, and it is those who climb over the weak to save themselves who will suffer. Social commentary aside, it’s also just a wildly fun action movie, beautifully paced and constructed, with just the right amount of character and horror. In many ways, it’s what “World War Z” should have been—a nightmarish vision of the end of the world, and a provocation to ask ourselves what it is that really makes us human in the first place.

 

Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) is a divorced workaholic. He lives with his mother and barely spends any time with his daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an). He’s so distant from her that he buys her a Nintendo Wii for her birthday, ignoring that she has one already, and that he’s the one who bought it for her for Children’s Day. To make up for this rather-awkward moment, he agrees to give Su-an what she really wants—a trip to her mother’s home in Busan, 280 miles away. It’s just an hour train ride from Seoul. What could possibly go wrong? Even the set-up is a thematic beauty, as this is more than just a train ride for Seok-woo and Su-an—it’s a journey into the past as a father tries to mend bridges and fix that which may be dead. It’s a perfect setting for a zombie movie.

Before they even get to their early-morning train ride, Seok-woo and Su-an see a convoy of emergency vehicles headed into Seoul. When they get to the train, Sang-ho beautifully sets up his cast of characters, giving us beats with the conductors, a pair of elderly sisters, a husband and his pregnant wife, an obnoxious businessman (a vision of Seok-woo in a couple decades), and even a baseball team. A woman who’s clearly not well gets on the train just before it departs, and just as something else disturbing but generally unseen is happening in the station above the platform. Before you know it, the woman is taking out the jugular of a conductor, who immediately becomes a similarly mindless killing machine. These are zombies of the “28 Days Later” variety—fast, focused, and violent. They replicate like a virus, turning whole cars of the train into dead-eyed flesh-eaters in a matter of seconds. They are rabid dogs. And you thought your Metra commute was bad.

The claustrophobic tension of “Train to Busan” is amplified after a brilliantly staged sequence in a train station in which our surviving travelers learn that the entire country has gone brain-hungry. They discover that the undead can’t quite figure out door handles and are mostly blind, so tunnels and lines of sight become essential. Sang-ho also keeps up his social commentary, giving us characters who want to do anything to survive, and others who will do what it takes to save others. Early in the film, Seok-woo tells his daughter, “At a time like this, only watch out for yourself,” but he learns that this isn’t the advice we should live by or pass down to our children. Without spoiling anything, the survivors of “Train to Busan” are only so lucky because of the sacrifice of others. And the film is thematically stronger than your average zombie flick in the way it captures how panic can make monsters of us all, and it is our responsibility to overcome that base instinct in times of crisis.

After the near-perfect first hour of “Train to Busan,” the film slows its progress and makes a few stops that feel repetitive, but the journey recovers nicely for a memorable finale. You could call it “Train of the Living Dead” or “'Snowpiercer' with Zombies.” Whatever you call it, if it’s playing in your city and you’ve ever been entertained by a zombie movie, it’s hard to believe you wouldn’t be entertained by this one.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/train-to-busan-2016

 

 

[Noor90]

Train to Busan: Yeon Goes Live Action, but Stays Zombie

Busan is home to one of Asia’s most important film festivals. It happens to be a fest with a large midnight section, so they are probably no strangers to zombies. According to rumors, Busan handled the unthinkable catastrophe better than most Korean regional governments. Unfortunately, there are several train cars loaded with even more shuffling undead headed straights towards the city in Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan which opens this Friday in New York.

For those keeping score at home, TTB takes place one day after the events of Yeon’s animated zombie film, Seoul Station. The morning news is filled with mysterious reports of violent riots erupting, but the average citizenry is still unaware a full scale zombie apocalypse has broken out. Super-busy fund manager Seok-woo proceeds to take his unhappy young daughter Su-an to visit her mother in Busan, exactly as planned. Obviously, if any zombies get in, a speeding commuter train will be a terrible place to be cornered: a confined space, packed with people, but no guns.

Of course, one manages to jump on at the last minute, along with uninfected shellshock man. By the way, these are not slow zombies we are talking about. They happen to be really darn fast. As usual for Yeon’s films, crisis brings out the worst in humanity, especially the scummy transit executive Yong-suk. Despite his every-man-for-himself instincts, Seok-woo will start working with a handful of passengers to survive. The audience will especially care about working class hardnose Sang-hwa, his mega-pregnant wife Sung-kyung, high school baseball player Young-guk, and cheerleader, Jin-hee. Yes, they do have baseball bats, which will be put to good use.

So basically, TTB is like Under Siege 2, but with zombies instead of Eric Bogosian. Yeon unleashes a massive undead beatdown, but it never feels CGI’ed. Those zombies pile-ups look as real as you’re ever going to want to see them. There is wide-ranging wreckage and a good deal of gore, but the human emotions are also legit. There are several character sacrifices—and they are always heavy moments. Frankly, Yeon’s only real mistake comes in killing off too many major characters. While we respect him for respecting the principles of zombie cinema, TBBdeserves to become a franchise, which would be easier with a few more returning faces.

Ma Dong-seok (a.k.a. Don Lee) is just plain awesome as the brawling Sang-hwa. His star has been steadily rising, butTTB should send it into the stratosphere. Likewise, An So-hee scores breakout turn as the resilient Jin-hee. Gong Yoo and Kim Su-an are certainly believable and ultimately quite poignant as the dysfunctional father and daughter, while Kim Eui-sung chews the scenery like Pac-Man as the odious Yong-suk. Yet, Yeon chooses to humanize him at the most unlikely moment. That is not like the frequently didactic filmmaker, but it sure keeps viewers off balance.

 

Yeon does not exactly reinvent zombie natural history, per se, but he gives the genre a few new tweaks. However, the pedal-to-the-metal execution will leave zombies fans in awe. It is easily the best zombie film since Sabu’s Miss Zombie, which was an entirely different cinematic creature. Very highly recommended for genre enthusiasts, Train to Busanopens this Friday (7/22) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

http://jbspins.blogspot.com.eg/2016/07/train-to-busan-yeon-goes-live-action.html

 

[Noor90]

Train to Busan (2016) ☆☆☆(3/4): South Korean Zombie Express

South Korean film “Train to Busan” combines one of my least favorite movie subjects with one of my most favorite movie subjects: zombie and train. As you have already guessed, this is basically another typical zombie movie in which a group of ordinary characters struggle to stay or run away from a sudden zombie epidemic, but the movie is scary and thrilling enough to fix us on the edge of our sear during most of its running time, and it also plays well with its refreshing premise while relentlessly passing by its plot points one by one as demanded.

After the unsettling opening sequence which announces a disaster on the horizon in advance, the movie moves onto its hero’s one bad day. Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) is a fund manager working in Seoul, and he is trying to deal with an unexpected trouble associated with some biotechnology company he has recently invested. While occupied with this annoying problem, he manages to prepare the birthday present for his young daughter Soo-an (Kim Soo-an), but he only finds himself disappointing her while being reminded again of how lousy he has been as her father.

Because Soo-an really wants to see her mother who moved away to Busan after her divorce, Seok-woo decides to take a half day-off for accompanying her on their express train to Busan. Although they happen to witness a big accident on their way to the train station during the early next morning, everything mostly looks quiet and normal in the city, and we see them and other passengers going on board one by one before the departure time of their train.

Not long after the train leaves the station, Seok-woo and other passengers slowly begin to sense that something weird is going on outside. They see TV news reports about numerous violent incidents which are happening in Seoul with no apparent reason, and the government continues to emphasize that there is nothing to be alarmed about, though this ongoing situation seems to be getting worse and worse with more rampages in the city.

Of course, this is just the beginning of a zombie epidemic to sweep across most of the country, and the movie steadily increases its level of tension step by step until it reaches the expected breaking point in the end. Once one unfortunate passenger eventually goes into that fully violent and infectious mode, it does not take much time for most of other passengers to be transformed into a horde of raging zombies not so different from what we saw from “28 Days Later…” (2002), and Seok-woo must do anything to save himself and his daughter from this terrifying circumstance.

As the train keeps staying on its course to Busan, the movie presents several impressive sequences packed with dread, suspense, horror, and action. At one point, there is a frightening moment when surviving passengers belatedly realize an imminent danger waiting right in front of them, and then we get a suspenseful scene when Seok-woo and a few other characters must be very careful in their every small movement for evading zombies. While the zombies in the movie do not bring anything new to their genre, they do look scary and daunting in their murderous group behaviors, and they are effectively utilized to make us involved in what is at stake for our endangered living characters during their desperate action scenes.

The characters in the movie are simple and broad to say the least, but I guess that comes with the territory, and you may recognize its various stereotype characters with amusement as its supporting cast members fill each own spot as required. We have a pregnant lady and her hulking husband; two old ladies who occasionally bicker with each other; a high school baseball team player and his pretty cheerleader girlfriend; a selfish businessman prick who spells out troubles right from his first appearance; a train conductor and a train engineer who are trying to deal with the situation way over their head; and a questionable stowaway who seems to be still frightened by whatever he saw before getting on the train. As Gong Yoo’s earnest performance holds the center even during the most frantic moments in the film, other notable South Korean performers including Ma Dong-seok, Jeong Yu-mi, and Kim Ee-seong are also effective in their supporting roles, and young actress Kim Soo-an handles well her rather sentimental scenes with Gong.

“Train to Busan” is the first live-action feature film by the director/wrtier Yeon Sang-ho, who previously directed two animation feature films “The King of Pigs” (2011) and “The Fake” (2013). Both of these moody and disturbing animation films were utterly uncomfortable but compelling works which trembled me a lot with its dark, brutal insights on the South Korean society, and I can tell you that a number of certain scenes in “Train to Busan” will probably resonate with South Korean audiences for good reasons. While watching those scenes, I could not help but think of the MERS virus outbreak which happened in South Korea during last summer – and how that outbreak was widely spread around the country mainly thanks to the stupendous incompetence and ignorance of our government as our society was thrown into the panic over that outbreak.

Although it unfortunately loses some of its narrative momentum during its last act coupled with arbitrary melodramatic moments, “Train to Busan” remains to be an entertaining genre piece with enough goodies to thrill and excite us, and Yeon makes a solid forward step into the mainstream as demonstrating his considerable filmmaking skills here. The movie made me frightened for what might happen for its characters, and I think I will be a little more watchful in the next time when I get on a train.

https://kaist455.wordpress.com/2016/07/16/train-to-busan-2016/

 

[lkgy99]

stage greeting 23/7/2016