Reviews: Train to Busan (2016) Movie Review
Subgenres: Zombies, Confined, Drama
Train to Busan (2016) shocked audiences with its ending. Our spoiler-free review explains the scares, themes, and what makes this film unforgettable.
Train to Busan (2016) is a 1h 58-min South Korean zombie apocalypse thriller-action-horror film whose original title is Busanhaeng. Director and writer Sang-ho Yeon (The King of Pigs (2011), The Fake (2013), Seoul Station (2016)) is one of my new favorite directors when it comes to zombies as I was speechless after watching Busanhaeng (2016). Train to Busan/Busanhaeng is the first Korean film of 2016 that had over 10 million theatergoers on August 7 which breaks the record. I cannot praise this director enough as this is one of the best zombie films I have seen in about ten years. It was an adventurous, entertaining ride that I did not want to stop
Seok-Woo (Yoo Gong - Silenced (2011), The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince (2007), She’s on Duty (2005)) is a workaholic who is divorced, not home much and does not give his young daughter Su-an enough attention. Soo-an (Soo-an Kim - Sprout (2013), Mad Sad Bad (2014), Gyeongju (2014)) only wish for her birthday is to visit her mother which her father reluctantly agreed to after she persisted. Soo-an and her father boarded the train heading to Busan but things does not go the way they plan as an injured female with a bite mark on her leg enters the train at last minute. The injured woman started to show signs of illness as she appears blue with her veins bulging and her body twitching uncontrollably with her eyes looking like a crazy person. The infected female attacks another person, and we all know what happens as the carnage begins and takes the movie to another level - a must see for all zombie fans.
Train to Busan was creative with a typical storyline that was well-exploited as the zombies twitch differently from other movies and movies erratically move making this film disturbingly nerve-racking. As good as this film was, I was stressed because I did not know what was going to happen next and if the characters I like will survive or not as I was rooting for them and tense while they face danger. All of the actors gave us fantastic performances that were convincing, realistic and could not be better. It was a non-stop action film that I would like to see a few times more because it had over-the-top violence that was not excessive with a wonderful soundtrack that flowed well with the film. The gore was not needed but was not overdone, and the suspense level in this cringe-worthy movie was extremely high. See Train to Busan as soon as you can!
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Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Train to Busan Rating Scores
- Our Score: 9/10
- Overall Score: 8.44/10
- IMDB: 7.6/10
- MetaCritic: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 9.5/10
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