DVD Review: Train To Busan

Full review on Starburst.

Seok Woo, a busy fund manager and single parent, has let his work take over his life to the extent that his daughter Soo-an can no longer stand living with him and demands to be taken to spend her birthday with her mother in Busan. And so father and daughter board the eponymous train – on the day the zombie infection breaks out.

Zombie movies may be ten-a-penny these days, and so it’s difficult to find a new approach to the genre, but this South Korean effort has a unique selling point in its claustrophobic setting; as many films before it have discovered, from Bond outing From Russia With Love to Snowpiercer, the confined and inescapable train is an excellent setting for brutal action. It’s even better with zombies on board. 

The theme of selfishness vs. selflessness is laid on heavy, particularly when it comes to supporting characters such as a one-dimensionally swinish COO and a pair of sisters who have opposing political views. And yet this is never a problem for long, as there’s always another pants-shakingly relentless action scene around the corner.