Train to Busan (Korean: 부산행; Hanja: 釜山行; RR: Busanhaeng) is a 2016 South Korean action horror zombie film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, and Ma Dong-seok. The film mostly takes place on a train to Busan as a zombie apocalypse suddenly breaks out in the country and threatens the safety of the passengers.
The film premiered in the Midnight Screenings section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on 13 May. On 7 August, the film set a record as the first Korean film of 2016 to break the audience record of over 10 million theatergoers. The film serves as a reunion for Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi, who both starred in the 2011 film The Crucible. A sequel, Peninsula, was released in South Korea on July 15, 2020.
Plot
A chemical leak at a biotech plant causes the start of a zombie apocalypse that rapidly spreads across South Korea.
Fund manager Seo Seok-woo is a cynical workaholic and divorced father. His daughter Su-an wants to spend her birthday with her mother in Busan. After being overcome with guilt after watching a video of Su-an suffering from stage fright while singing “Aloha ‘Oe” at a recital due to his absence, he decides to take her to Busan via an early KTX 101 from Seoul Station. Other passengers include working-class man Yoon Sang-hwa and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong; selfish COO Yon-suk; a high school baseball team, including baseball player Min Yong-guk and cheerleader Kim Jin-hee; train attendant Ki-chul; elderly sisters In-gil and Jong-gil; and a homeless stowaway.
As the train departs, signs of chaos from the infection reach the station, and an infected woman runs inside, unnoticed, just before the doors close. She soon turns into a zombie, attacks an attendant, and many crew and passengers are quickly turned into zombies. The remaining passengers quickly secure themselves in the front and rear cars, observing that the infected zombies only attack if they can see them or hear them, but they can’t operate the train’s doors. They learn from news reports of the rapidly-spreading epidemic across the country, and Seok-woo discovers the biotech plant was connected to his business. He uses his connections to try to secure safe travels for Su-an and himself.
The train stops at Daejeon Station, supposedly secured by the South Korean Army. The passengers disembark into a vacant station, but soon find the soldiers have become zombies, who quickly charge the group. Several passengers are attacked and killed as they race back to the train, while most of the surviving ones safely board the front cars. Su-an, Seong-kyeong, In-gil, and the homeless man find themselves between two cars of zombies and quickly take shelter in the restrooms. Seok-woo, Yong-guk, Sang-hwa and two of Yong-guk’s three surviving classmates, having stayed back to provide cover, race to board the moving train, though Yong-guk’s friends are killed and infected during the escape, and end up in the back cars. The captain drives the train to Busan after learning it has been established as a quarantine zone.
Learning of their trapped loved ones, Seok-woo’s group uses the darkness of tunnels along the route to cross through the zombie-filled cars and rescue them. The group continues moving towards the safe front cars but inadvertently alert the zombies in the last car before the safe one. Seok-woo and Sang-hwa stay back to hold the doors closed while the others escape, but Yon-suk has convinced Ki-chul and the other passengers that they are potentially infected and they should not help. Sang-hwa sacrifices himself to give Seok-woo time to get the others to safety. In-gil is too slow and is caught by the zombies.
Yon-suk and Ki-chul lead the other passengers in the front cars to force Seok-woo’s group into a closed vestibule, believing them infected. Jong-gil, shaken by the passengers’ selfishness, lets the zombies into the front car, killing the other survivors, though Yon-suk and Ki-chul manage to escape into a restroom. The train is forced to stop near East Daegu train station due to a blocked track, forcing the survivors to seek a new train. Yon-suk, in his escape, pushes Ki-chul, Jin-hee and the captain into a pack of zombies; Yong-guk stays with Jin-hee until she reanimates and kills him. An out-of-control train causes a derailment, trapping Seok-woo, Su-an, Seong-kyeong, and the homeless man under a train car. The homeless man sacrifices himself to hold back a zombie horde while the others escape out a small hole, finding a working locomotive. As they head toward Busan, a zombiefied Yon-suk attacks Seok-woo and bites him before Seok-woo can throw him from the engine. Knowing he will turn, he quickly teaches Seong-kyeong how to operate the train and says his goodbyes to Su-an before throwing himself off the engine.
Seong-kyeong and Su-an are forced to stop at a blocked tunnel just before Busan and walk. At the tunnel’s exit, military snipers prepare to fire on them until they hear Su-an’s singing of “Aloha ‘Oe”, realize they are human, and quickly help the pair to safety.
Cast
- Gong Yoo as Seo Seok-woo, a fund manager who is estranged from his daughter and wife
- Ma Dong-seok as Yoon Sang-hwa, a tough man married to Seong-kyeong
- Kim Su-an as Seo Su-an, Seok-woo’s young daughter who wants to go to Busan to see her mother Na-young
- Jung Yu-mi as Seong-kyeong, Sang-hwa’s kind, brave wife who is pregnant. During the film, she is the one who mostly looks after Su-an.
- Choi Woo-shik as Min Yong-guk, a high school student and baseball player who is going to Busan to a baseball game
- Ahn So-hee as Kim Jin-hee, one of Yong-guk’s friends.
- Kim Eui-sung as Yon-suk, COO of Stallion Express
- Choi Gwi-hwa as a homeless man, who suffers from PTSD after a zombie attack. His given name is unknown
- Jang Hyuk-jin as Ki-chul, train attendant
- Ye Soo-jung as In-gil, elderly woman who is the older sister of Jong-gil
- Park Myung-sin as Jong-gil, sister of In-gil
- Jeong Seok-yong as the captain of the KTX
- Han Sung-soo as the baseball team’s leader
- Kim Chang-hwan as Kim Jin-mo
- Shim Eun-kyung as Runaway Girl
- Lee Joo-shil as Seok-woo’s mother. She dotes on Su-an and hopes that her son can reconcile with Na-young (Seok-woo’s estranged wife)
Reception
Box office
Train to Busan grossed $80.5 million in South Korea, $2.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $15.8 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $98.5 million.
It became the highest-grossing Korean film in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In South Korea, it recorded more than 11 million moviegoers and was the highest grossing film of the year.
Critical response
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 94% of 117 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.60/10. The website’s critics consensus states: “Train to Busan delivers a thrillingly unique — and purely entertaining — take on the zombie genre, with fully realized characters and plenty of social commentary to underscore the bursts of skillfully staged action.” Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, assigned the film an average score of 72 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews.”
Clark Collis of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the film “borrows heavily from World War Z in its depiction of the fast-moving undead masses while also boasting an emotional core the Brad Pitt-starring extravaganza often lacked,” adding that “the result is first-class throughout.” At The New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis selected the film as her “Critic’s Pick” and took notice of its subtle class warfare.
In a negative review, David Ehrlich of IndieWire comments that “as the characters whittle away into archetypes (and start making senseless decisions), the spectacle also sheds its unique personality.” Kevin Jagernauth of The Playlist wrote: ” doesn’t add anything significant to the zombie genre, nor has anything perceptive to say about humanity in the face of crisis. Sure, it lacks brains, and that’s the easy quip to make, but what Train To Busan truly needs, and disappointingly lacks, is heart.”
British filmmaker Edgar Wright highly applauds the film, personally recommending it on Twitter and calling it the “best zombie movie I’ve seen in forever.”
Accolades
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asian Film Awards | 21 March 2017 | Best Actor | Gong Yoo | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Ma Dong-seok | Nominated | |||
| Best Editor | Yang Jin-mo | Nominated | |||
| Best Visual Effects | Jung Hwang-su | Nominated | |||
| Best Costume Designer | Kwon Yoo-jin and Rim Seung-hee | Nominated | |||
| Blue Dragon Film Awards | 25 November 2016 | Best Film | Train to Busan | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Kim Eui-sung | Nominated | |||
| Ma Dong-seok | Nominated | ||||
| Best Supporting Actress | Jung Yu-mi | Nominated | |||
| Best New Director | Yeon Sang-ho | Nominated | |||
| Best Art Direction | Lee Mok-won | Nominated | |||
| Best Screenplay | Park Joo-seok | Nominated | |||
| Best Editing | Yang Jin-mo | Nominated | |||
| Best Cinematography | Lee Hyeong-deok | Nominated | |||
| Best Lighting | Park Jeong-woo | Nominated | |||
| Technical Award | Kwak Tae-yong and Hwang Hyo-gyoon (special make-up) | Won | |||
| Audience Choice Award for Most Popular Film | Train to Busan | Won | |||
| Buil Film Awards | 7 October 2016 | Best Film | Train to Busan | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Kim Eui-sung | Won | |||
| Best Supporting Actress | Jung Yu-mi | Nominated | |||
| Best Cinematography | Lee Hyeong-deok | Nominated | |||
| Best Art Direction | Lee Mok-won | Nominated | |||
| Yu Hyun-mok Film Arts Award | Yeon Sang-ho | Won | |||
| Fangoria Chainsaw Awards | N/A | Best Foreign-Language Film | Train to Busan | Won | |
| Best Actor | Gong Yoo | Nominated | |||
| Korean Association of Film Critics Awards | 24 November 2016 | Technical Award | Train to Busan | Won | |
| Saturn Awards | 28 June 2017 | Best Horror Film | Nominated | ||
| Baeksang Arts Awards | 3 May 2017 | Best Film | Nominated | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Kim Eui-sung | Won | |||
| Ma Dong-seok | Nominated | ||||
| Best New Director | Yeon Sang-ho | Won | |||
| Chunsa Film Awards | May 24, 2017 | Technical Award | Kwak Tae-yong | Won | |
| Special Audience Awardfor Best Film | Train to Busan | Won |
Home media
American distributor Well Go USA released DVD and Blu-ray versions of Train to Busan on 17 January 2017. FNC Add Culture released the Korean DVD and Blu-ray versions on 22 February 2017. It is also available on Rakuten Viki, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video streaming. The Indian version is a minute shorter than the original version due to a few violent zombie shots being censored.
Animated prequel and standalone sequel
An animated prequel, Seoul Station, also directed by Yeon, was released less than a month later.
Peninsula, a standalone sequel set four years after Train to Busan and also directed by Yeon, was released in South Korea in July 15, 2020, to mixed reviews. Yeon has stated that, “Peninsula is not a sequel to Train to Busan because it’s not a continuation of the story, but it happens in the same universe.”
Remake
In 2016, Gaumont acquired the rights for the English-languaged remake of the film from Next Entertainment World. In 2021, New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster and Coin Operated were announced to be the co-producing partners for the remake, with Warner Bros. Pictures distributing worldwide. Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto is in talks to helm the film, while Gary Dauberman adapts the screenplay and co-produces the film alongside James Wan.