Why Train to Busan is a PERFECT Zombie Movie

[Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] so after doing an in-depth analysis on sean of the dead i wanted to take a step back from the usual zombie sins and dive into another zombie movie that i thoroughly enjoyed from recent memory now it's not very often i will re-watch a movie these days as many fail to entice me or capture my interest but there was something about this breakout korean hit with an interesting concept that really rang well with me zombie movies can be a great source of horror action suspense emotion sometimes comedy character development and social commentary and with trained busan all the bases are covered beyond well believable likable and unlikable people subtle commentary on sociopolitics and most importantly how it wasn't just another generic action movie that sometimes had zombies in it with the sequel called peninsula slated to release later this year i wanted to give today's video a shot so all aboard as we leave the station and explain why train to busan is a perfect zombie movie [Music] now originally the title of this video was going to be how trained to busan showed america how to make a zombie movie explaining the elements that this korean made film did fantastically versus what a number of american zombie films failed to deliver in just a generic easy to digest gruel so i'll start with the video's original intent then go into an in-depth analysis of the motion picture in question so when it comes to american-made zombie films and for that matter action horror and suspense movies of that recent era there isn't much to the imagination and broadening of the characters these movies present a majority of people will compare the zombies of this franchise to those found in the film adaptation of world war z considering it was probably the best selling zombie movie the west has had in years outside of zombieland both present in inherent danger but to varying degrees world war z gives us an action hero badass with the nuclear family who travels the world narrowly escaping hordes of the undead time and time again in order to find a cure or at least something to fight back with so that humanity can survive just think of the movie 2012 but this time with cgi zombies while entertaining it's not much more than that just fun without thought we don't get to dive too much into the psyche of some of these movies casts because as a majority many american films seek to just fill a standard issue role instead of having an actual person with conflicting thoughts and emotions interact with the zombie outbreak and as for the zombies until the end we don't get much of them as individual threats more so as just a natural disaster there's really not much that separates world war z from any disaster film like the day after tomorrow or 2012. we know deep down in our hearts that there was no way in hell that brad pitt was gonna die and that most likely he would survive and find what he is looking for to get a happy ending that most audiences eat up i mean hell they had to change the ending to 28 days later because people were too depressed about the original ending now trained to busan injects a bit more realism into its story from its cast of characters while at the same time giving the zombies themselves the face-to-face dread and despair that makes them so terrifying taking the simple idea of a condensed group of people dealing with the outbreak in the enclosed environment of a train in order to encapsulate south korean culture embody character relationships and growth and give the zombie threat a summarized sequence of events similar to the ones going on country wide see it as world war z's plane scenes but fleshed out through most of the run time where people have to overcome their differences band together and survive trained busan utilizes everything a movie can use to its best advantages from cast plot setting and conflict and much like my discussion in sean of the dead a lot of this stems from the focus of the film's main character this time with xiakwu and his daughter suwon and i'm sorry if i butcher their korean pronunciation of their names but i'm going to roll on with it xiakwu is a hard-working and business-centric man a sentiment deeply ingrained in a majority of northeast asian culture he is that embodiment so much so in fact that his work life morality and family life clash often whenever he sees immediate financial danger he seeks to sell off assets if only to cowardly save his and his company's stocks at the detriment of all associated entities due to his work ethic his wife separated from him and his daughter remains in split custody between them in a cat's in the cradle-like fashion he doesn't see or interact with his daughter often so he must ask his younger associate what kids are into uh pretty much displaying how little time he spends with her and gets to know her the first thing he sees and hears her doing is hiding under a blanket talking to her mom about how soon she will be leaving to see her again he attempts to buy her off with a wii but fails to realize that he already bought her one before xiakwu despite trying to reason that his work and money are worth it still doesn't change the fact that his own child would rather spend time with family that will put the effort into a loving relationship he is basically a father that was never there for her when it counted and he begins to realize this as he watches his daughter's recital that meant the world to her through a camera recording through the brutal honesty of a child suwon set sakwu's ultimate goal to earn her love and respect and more importantly to instill in her morals during her impressionable youth sakura is conflicted between the ideologies of two integral characters starting off as a man so focused on business profits and fending for himself that we can get a similarity with the greedy yon suk who will ensure his own survival and reckless interests through any means necessary when suwon allowed an elderly woman to take her seat sakwu told her she shouldn't have done that and they should only ever look after themselves to which suwon is visibly disappointed in him he even looks to yon suk to secretly ask how many safe havens there are so that no one else can hear them using one of the people he has listed in his phone as a lemming he devises a plan to divert away from the trained survivors to escape individually and avoid quarantine at the cost of losing the last shred of respect from his daughter in one scene yon suk is even screaming as the devil on his shoulder to just shut the door to leave his angel to die the angel being san hua san hua a burly gentleman who puts his pregnant wife before anything even holding the line while the infected draw closer he will also selflessly act to help others even at the risk of his own life a sentiment also shared by korean culture to put the group above the individual he offers understanding with a bit of comedy while showing little to no signs of fear his strength of body and will on top of a straightforward demeanor are greatly admired by sakwu's daughter and are traits that sakwu himself soon wishes to adopt sak spends the majority of the movie evolving from one man to another rather than being torn in multiple different directions he is basically an average guy with natural flaws there's a lot more to sink your teeth into with this character versus what many american zombie films try to hash out he isn't a badass he isn't always brave but through the looking glass we can understand his actions but sock's perspective isn't everything to this movie as underlying themes are also prevalent throughout sakwu's efforts as a fund manager are to keep a level of wealth in class picking at the topic of the divide of class and wealth and this can be seen outside of sock between the wealthy upper class of yon suk and the poor lower class that is the unnamed homeless man south korea has a small issue with homelessness and on top of that societal norms dictate that most people keep to themselves in most situations two stowaways enter the train as it departs an erratic bitten and convulsing young woman and a paranoid homeless man despite hints of the virus and pandemic beginning to crop up yansuke directly points out the homeless man hiding in the bathroom direct opposite of the infected woman in the other washroom that soon openly walks among the public yon looking down on the man is quick to dictating how people of his caliber are something to always look down upon the fearing and huddled masses tend to believe and rally behind yon suck as he entrap their minds with fear and judgment based on the appearance of others unknowingly separating themselves from people who actually care for their well-being he will throw anyone and everyone into harm's way to save his own life trying to ditch the train's residence and uncouple the main card to book it for the only safe haven that is busan and literally being the reason for numerous deaths later in the movie his overwhelming fear overflows when he discovers he was bitten and slowly turning into a zombie he begins to cry and ask for his mother reverting to a childlike state of fear and showing a weak and frail man despite his wealth and status the homeless man had been attempting to warn people of impending doom that was unfolding however cryptic and insane he may have sounded but due to his appearance and mannerisms no one would pay him any mind or ask what's wrong even the audience would do the same upon outward appearance many would assume he would look out for himself especially with how scared and reclused he was in the train but he is saved and returns the favor a few times blinding an infected attacking sock and even sacrificing himself for the pregnant song kyung so that she may escape diverting people's expectations of his character and showing a brave and caring man was beneath the grime and muck now rewinding back a bit we discussed how the train full of people deliberately paid no mind to a girl with visible injuries and more than peculiar behavior while security has been pointed in the direction of a less concerning issue of a homeless man a commentary on how people of korean culture as stated earlier will look the other way in situations such as this keeping to their own business it's this blind eye that allows the zombie outbreak to begin to grow from within the train the zombie virus acting as an untouched assortment of societal and personal issues festering until eventually everything comes to a head now some may come into the saying but why does this make it a good zombie movie you've barely even talked about the zombies or infected themselves well that's sort of the point while in my analysis about sean of the dead i made consistent connections between the drawfully living to the obviously dead trained to busan doesn't nearly project that same sentiment however it does use the chaos of the pandemic well all it took was one girl to sneak aboard and once that problem had arisen was completely ignored by everyone until it was literally in their face snowballing into an uncontrollable epidemic the zombies themselves are given unnatural behavior with their jagged movements which psychologically the unpredictable nature of a creature's movements has been proven to cause uneasiness and paranoia in any human being the drastic transfer rate after being bitten the accompanying musical score [Music] and the fact that the more they infect within this train the more cornered the healthy residents become in each and every car separating and isolating people amongst the chaos the fact that these particular zombies give up on their prey once they have lost sight of them or simply how blind they are may indicate the blind hysteria that society can fall into and yes i deserve any we live in a society comments that are coming my way the zombies being the dilemma of society and how it can spur out of control in the blink of an eye and this all comes despite the higher ups in government that may tell us and more so how sheer terror of infection and stark raving undead forces each character to show their true colors the first group visibly exposed to this outbreak being the young baseball team and teenagers on the outside being dropped in on by falling zombies possibly pointing out how the follies of civilization will first fall upon the young generation all while the older generations look on with doubt contempt for the actions of the youth and ignorance to what is really going on korean culture is reflected heavily in train to busan with the two elderly sisters ingil and john gill watched as rioting broke out on television and stated how situations like this wouldn't have happened in their day however adults and children of some morality still show some respect as in south korea the older the person the more respect is expected of the youth arriving in the false hope that is dejean sorry if i mispronounced that too the passengers trek forward to supposed military protection and while sock is taking the alternate route leaves his daughter behind in a haste suwon staying in the middle point of shock's duality stands alone as both pathways become overrun and she is about to be killed despite saying he would look out for her his sentiments of you must look out for yourself rang truer than ever he suddenly realizes his negligence self-concern and selfishness are going to cost him his only child that is until san hua and xiong kyung go out of their way to save her the ideal couple and man he should be and could have had is there for his daughter in her time of need while sak tries to catch up he is left alone and then attacked by an infected the rest of the surviving passengers are escaping while he must fight for his life alone in a bit of irony he takes a book and uses it to gag the infected to prevent being eaten alive so you might say he is eating his own words in order to defend himself he has shown mercy twice by the homeless man blinded the infected and again by sanhua keeping the door open long enough for him to get through it is during this scene that sakwu sanhua and yang guk are separated from the women in their life suwon seonkyong and jin hee in order to get his daughter back after she lost faith in him he must fight for his life and overcome his inhibitions this experience will also expose xiakwu to the man he wishes to be and separating him from the man he wishes to separate from himself all while sanhua calls him out on his past actions during their preparations san juan becomes the action movie badass taking control and the forefront of all the characters pushing the main character sock wu to the back unlike american made zombie films where the badass is the main character with no real fear of death giving the badass role to a side character gives them less of an aura of invincible plot armor they will soon fight together talk about their lives and learn from each other the situation also feels more intense considering they must use their own strength and found melee weaponry in close quarters as guns are a somewhat restricted commodity in south korea as with any american made zombie movies you'll have numerous shootout scenes with hordes of undead and in some cases with american zombie movies you have to wonder how so many fell to the infected with surpluses of firearms but with south koreans an average of only .20 people per 100 are carrying any firearms and are mostly prohibited to only those in law enforcement military and manufacturers so the default of whipping out a gun and blowing away a zombie isn't really an option for an average civilian in this breakout again upping the fear factor in direct combat since one bite does mean certain death and infection sanhua does have a heart to heart with sakwu saying that despite not ever spending time with her his underappreciated hard work will someday be understood by his daughter but also as a father he must make sacrifices for those he loves foreshadowing and lighthearted interaction at its finest on the opposite side of the train where things seem safest we mirror back to the conniving yan suk who proclaims that their efforts to reach them will definitely risk everyone's well-being saying it's out of the question to let them enter while it's realistic to say so it's obviously a veil for him to keep himself protected while projecting his fear-mongering onto the remaining residents it is the hopeful youth of jin hee that takes this reasoning into question not far off is the older generation of john gill in a blank stare denying what may have happened to her family it is this conflict where not only do the public of the train attempt to prevent possible infected from entering this one safe haven but also again where two parts of sakwu somewhat collide sanhua and eventually saku hold the line from certain death despite the pleas and struggles of the youth young guk his cries are going unheard until he forces his way into that generation's area it is here because of the actions of the fearful and selfish yon suk that san juan is bitten and that everyone aboard is now fighting each other to stay alive the living are fighting against the living this scene the tears shed the terror of each person this is what defines this movie both sides of xiakwu looking to either save themselves or protect those around them desperation amongst the chaos is deafening sanwa knowing his imminent fate basically passes the torch to sakwu trusting him to protect his pregnant wife and emboldened his spirit sakwu sees the side of him he aspired to be sacrificing himself for the woman and child he loved as he struggles to let him bear it alone he flees with seong kyung but not before the father told the mother the name he wanted for their child in the future oh hold on just just give me a minute goddamn okay okay i'm good i'm good i'm good i'm good as san hua fights his last battle on two sides of the looking glass saku and yan suk meet eye to eye to overcome one another gil witnessing the horrors of it all between the wild undead and conflicted living decides to stay back and let herself be taken sending her sister john gill to watch her die and go into a downward spiral saku assaults yon suk asking why his cowardice had to cost so many their lives gyan resorts to the scared populace to fight his battle for him by marking their group as potential infected these actions have sock looking on with disbelief as they are berated and forced into a quarantine of the car ahead of them sock leaving behind the shell of a man he once was these people distracted from the rich man's targeting of a potential threat fail to remember that there is a very real threat pounding at the door behind them john gill spectating her turn sister reflects on her world views of helping one another and then looks back at the panicking society behind her and in a fit of emotional resentment she softly mutters and decides to open the door to embrace her sister's fate and deliver unbridled karma to the people who let fear consume them in no time flat society had fallen under the pressure of fear the elderly who saw the worlds they were leaving behind couldn't bear witness to it any further the remaining survivors were uncertain of their future sakwu had undergone a transformation there was no visible fear in his eyes or body language as he spoke to his daughter he vowed to be there for her and it felt for once completely honest it seemed his ex-wife and her mother were dead as she was unreachable and soon he called his former assistant who at the beginning of the movie commanded him to withdraw funds from biotech speculations as to the origins of this virus stemming from a supposed chemical leak in the biotech district the withdrawal of funds may have caused this leak that may have caused the disease this catalyst had been the culmination of his past selfish deeds having ramifications and when coming to terms with this absolves his friend of any wrongdoing and washes the blood from his hands that he created while it is not definite that he was the reason for this outbreak regardless coming to terms with his past as a greedy fund manager and how it has affected so many people brings him to tears he has destroyed lives and he has to pay their final destination is cut short as the train is forced to stop due to a blockage and the remaining cast are told they must go out into the world and face what was left to the dismay of everyone in the audience yawn suck survived god damn it and by lying to the man that helped him so many times used him as bait to escape even the man that stood behind him in his ideals was just a disposable tool to win ends for his own survival this would go forward in a long spree of selfish actions that leads to the senseless death of many characters including the young couple who had been separated by a runaway magnet train it's not built up that one or the other would die so soon but within mere moments that jin hee is thrown as fodder and bitten it's just quick and done without hesitation a fact that death can happen at any moment with the young man being the last remnant of his generation can only lament over the loss of his love and weep at the impossible situation they were forced into and willingly lets himself fall victim among the wreckage of the train yard sakwu regains his consciousness as a car full of infected are about to break through the glass above them sock must bring about all of his strength in order to remove debris that separates him from his daughter and the people he promised to tend to all while the homeless man as discussed earlier decides to sacrifice himself so the young women may escape dashing the preconceived notions of a man like him the climax of the film comes to a fever pitch the people and the representations they muster have mostly all been extinguished all that's left for them is one final means of escape as the unrelenting horde draws near each infected begins to latch on to the soul train and tally up in a massive dog pile with only shock there to prevent its overwhelming growth siok is coming to terms with the catastrophe he inadvertently created and facing the sheer numbers of people that had fallen victim to his actions but even then when going forward all he can do is overcome this hurdle and only look back just when shock thinks he has safely led suwon and song kyung to safety one last obstacle rears its ugly head yon suk i realize i've been saying yan suk this whole time but he sucks as a person so i'm gonna call him yun suk was slowly turning doubting his imminent demise sniveling to go back home to mommy until karma courses through his veins and becomes the creature he killed so many to avoid becoming he was a noticeably visible monster now sakwu now faces the man he once was and who has stubbornly stayed alive up until this point to protect his daughter and the woman his strong side wanted to save allows himself to be bitten in the chaos so that he finally may rid them of the greed and selfishness that not only destroyed himself but society as a whole he will never be able to get beyond his past a part of him responsible for needless carnage and tears but as he reaches the end of the train coming to terms with his own mortality and not being there for his daughter as she grows older he is allowed one last moment of recollection remembering the moment he held his daughter for the first time in the sheer amount of joy that overflowed him and how it changed his world to him his final moments were spent with a smile on his face knowing he did the best he could as a father and followed the words of sanhua and at that point may not understand it right now but someday she will saku lets himself go and thus his story comes to a close his development come full circle the end of it all or so you may think as song kyung slowly walks with suwon to unknown grounds at the end of the tunnel awaits fully armed military personnel who are ordered to shoot to kill since the infected are almost impossible to discern from the healthy from a distance just when they are about to fire they overhear suwon sorrowfully singing aloha lo singing this song she always wanted to perform for her father she never had the chance to sing it to him personally and always refuse to sing it in public unless in his presence but as she is walking down the tunnel she decides to sing it whether it was in memoriam to her deceased father or to comfort her this song had given the armed guards reason enough to believe they were not infected and thus saving their lives even after death saku was looking over his daughter and saved her in spirit after my sixth viewing and another burst of tears i still could not be tired of this film the genuine horror of the zombies in the confined space not being too over the top or having unbelievable situations the characters one by one all felt believable in their emotions their behavior and actions although sometimes it was questionable during the zombie scenes but you can check that out in my everything wrong with train to busan video suwon's performance felt like an actual kid and not a child actor reading what a 50 year old told them to say the young couple and elderly siblings while not at the forefront of the action served their purposes that had deeply impacted those around them and the commentary on the generations of the world yansuk the greedy fear-mongering selfish man that he is while despicable in his actions was also how a majority of people would probably act many people would say they would be selfless amongst the zombie apocalypse but when [ __ ] hits the fan people will indeed know how fear impacts their greater judgment yonsuk was a perfect embodiment of everything wrong with man sanhui and his fiancee were light-hearted and a lovable couple who felt like they actually loved each other and weren't just a couple of actors that were cast together as a husband and wife san juan was the perfect embodiment of a good-hearted man strong in mind heart and body and something to look up to sock's transformation felt genuine and earned he came full circle in his development and his ultimate sacrifice didn't feel ham-fisted the plot and outcome didn't feel like it followed a formula closely and gave the plot and people room to breathe i'm also really glad they didn't pull any bs with song kyung by having her get infected and having this dawn of the dead moment the commentary on many aspects of korean culture general societal norms the natural human condition are incredible and i highly recommend watching it again with all of this in mind this wasn't just another zombie movie and god i cannot wait to see what peninsula comes out and has to offer later this year what did you think of my take on train to bassan was i looking too far into the movie did i sound like a pretentious movie critic or film theory professor what did i miss out on are you pissed i talked crap about world war z and i am legend let me know in the comments if you enjoyed it like and sub and if you haven't already and if you have a few bucks lying around donate to my patreon become a member of my channel by hitting join or donate during my live streams to be featured here from generous donators patreon patrons to the youtube members and to my live stream saints anything is appreciated and i'll be returning to regular programming of why you wouldn't survive and zombie sends in the near future so check out some of my other content and if you want to nitpick train to busan i haven't everything wrong with trained busan video you can check out above until next time i'm zac ass aka wow such gaming never forget to cherish life love those near you and always stay well

Channel: Wow Such Gaming

Views: 2,752,255

Rating: 4.9513283 out of 5

Keywords: Train to Busan, Peninsula, Review, Analysis, Korea, Zombie, Film, Busan, Good, Perfect

Id: SsgcxY44tD0

Length: 30min 15sec (1815 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 08 2020