Train to Busan / Busanhaeng / 부산행

*Spoiler warning*

2016 film "Train to Busan" is a harrowing zombie-horror-thriller directed by Yeon Sang-Ho

starring “Hallyu star” Gong Yoo as the lead. The film is set in South Korea in train KTX bound to Busan and follows the life-or-death survival between a group of terrified passengers and regular civilians turned zombies as a result of an abnormal viral virus outbreak. Seok-woo played by Gong Yoo, a divorced workaholic with little time to spend with his daughter Soo-an reluctantly decides on taking the morning off of work to take his daughter to Busan to visit her mother for her birthday with the intention of returning to work before lunch, though his and many other’s plans’s don’t go as scheduled. The film’s dialogue is in Korean naturally but can be found both english dubbed and subbed and is also featured on Netflix. 

The film has received a great ton of positive feedback with high average ratings from both critics and film lovers. Edgar Wright director of “Shaun of the Dead” even recommended the film in a tweet and called it the "best zombie movie I've seen in forever. A total crowd pleaser”. It was even said in Variety magazine that French studio Gaumont Film Company would produce a remake of Train to Busan in English as they have the English remake rights.

Train to Busan is the first South Korean film to reach over 10 million viewers in 2016. Worldwide Train to Busan grossed a total of $87.5 million. The film has also won multiple awards including: Yu Hyun-Mok Film Arts Award (2016 25th Buil Film Awards), Best New Director (2016 Korea Film Actor's Association Top Star Awards), Best Discovery of the Year (2017 8th KOFRA Film Awards) and Best New Director (2017 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards) and been nominated for many more. Due to the films major success I was delighted to find that Yeon Sang-Ho released an animated sequel to Train to Busan called “Seoul Station” in 2016. 

This is one interesting train ride I can say for sure. The film is a very exciting and exhilarating roller-coaster rise from the start to the end. It has everything you expect in a zombie film: the long chases making several very close calls, the mass slaughters and the constant suspense of the characters survival.

The zombies in the film I felt were executed very well and their action scenes with the skilled use of both practical and computer-generated effects were able to really gain a sense of realism. Their relentless energy in their quest to quench their thirst for human flesh breathlessly pulled me to the edge of my seat through all of their scenes. 

The film had all the same things your typical zombie film would have, but in a different way for the better. Though the film didn’t bring anything necessarily new to the table, it was able to make up for it through its depth, for example, initially, a selfish workaholic (Seok-Woo) is forced to kill himself for the greater good. 

The cinematography throughout the film is also very satisfying. The cuts are seamless, the colours used work well together, and despite the story being set during daytime, the film is able to bring an almost claustrophobic feeling causing constant suspense and nerves without heavily relying on jump scares or very low lighting conditions. 

The characters in this genre of films tend to typically be rather one dimensional, but in Train to Busan this doesn’t seem to be the case. As the story progresses we witness the characters evolve and change through their motives, their relationships with one another and what they are willing to risk for those around them. Throughout the movie I found myself rather emotionally attached to the characters, I was constantly rooting for their survival and was instantly gutted when they encountered obstacles and hardships. I feel this is a result of not only the plots depth but the superb performance, which is why I was genuinely moved to tears in the final scene of Seok-Woo where I felt Gong Yoo’s performance was absolutely brilliant and heartbreaking. Where turning into a zombie is typically frightening and gruesome, I love how Seok-Woo's transformation was anything but. His performance in this scene I felt really showed his progress from his lead breakout role in the romantic TV comedy series “Coffee Prince” in 2007 which is when his popularity began to grow rapidly. If I had to comment on one thing about the film and its characters, it would be my personal desire to see some of the women take charge in at least a few of the scenes as the men are given all the responsibility of using their strength and wits to defeat the zombies. But, with that in mind, I was still able to see past it and acknowledge the film for what it was and thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless.  

Not only is this film a kickass zombie-disaster film, but it also possesses melodramatic-drama flick qualities. The film incorporates everything you expect from its genre but holds its originality that makes it so much more. 

Unforgiven

“It’s horrible, boring and not worth your time.”
These were the words going through my mind when it was announced we would be watching a western film called “Unforgiven”. I was definitely a skeptic at first, I was expecting the typical male to constantly provoke others with a beer-induced slur wanting to shoot any man in his sight who seemed slightly annoying but, was gladly surprised to see it wasn’t all of what I initially deemed it to be.
Clint Eastwood put up a rather applaudable performance as the protagonist William Munny, a retired killer thanks to his late wife, considering his role of both directing and producing the film. As the film progresses, temptation settles in as his desperation to provide for his children intensifies by the bounty offered by the woman of a brothel through the “Schofield” kid played by Jaimz Woolvett. Once Munny decides to take on this offer he makes his way to his partner of his past Ned Logan played by Morgan Freeman to join in on their quest to seek revenge for the men who cut-up the whore-house woman's face in return of enough money to gain smiles from his kids. The 1992 American revisionist Western film was released on the 3rd of August which went on to gather a total of four Oscar academy awards: Best Picture and Best Director for Clint Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman, and Best Film Editing for editor Joel Cox.
The film for me almost served as a finale to the downhill genre, from the opening shot of the barren house with the lonely grave to the end of the film which is the same. Eastwood himself stated that Unforgiven would be his last Western in fear of both repeating himself or replicating another's work.
The film evoked distant, ambivalent feelings similar to the characters of the film themselves. Throughout the film, we are able to realise how every character possesses such qualities that allow us as the audience to be able to easily identify and categorize them as either good or bad. I felt this helped engage me further into the film as I thought I was rather onto it. The film also goes against typical films as the four lead actors cast were over 55 years of age and offers more than your typical Western
The film defies typical Westerns as it shows how the “heroic Old West” myth is a lie and destructive. The Western genre showcases a part of America's history, and in Unforgiven Eastwood identified the issue with glamorising the “heroic Old West” as since time has passed more and more people have realised that it wasn’t as heroic and glamorous as what was shown in the past Westerns. The film was added to the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2004, where Unforgiven was deemed as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Unforgiven also incorporates the cost and limit of violence and tends to demystify violence.
As the film neared its end I felt a mix of emotions. I felt the film was done very well and redeemed itself to be a great Western, but also felt slightly alienated from the characters and message of the film. The film concludes itself by playing a gentle finale song (Claudia's theme) in the background when showing his homestead where Munny had struggled to master the wilderness both internally and externally. The barren isolated house has its only accompaniment of the wide clothing line and the lonely grave under the tall barren tree symbolising the Western genre’s popularity- dead.