By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50461677
Train to Busan - (2016)
I'm pretty sure all the aliens out there binging on the movies travelling through the galaxy on the airwaves are convinced that zombie hoards are a real menace on Earth - but while the whole subgenre has become commonplace, it was much rarer from a South Korean point of view. Yeon Sang-ho's
Train to Busan was huge, but I'm only getting to it now and was encouraged by watching
The Wailing the other night (it had a trailer for
Busan playing before it that I was enjoying so much I skipped the rest so as not to spoil anything, and decided then and there to watch it the next night.) It gets both the action and horror absolutely right, and those two aspects help to amplify each other - the more horrified you are by the undead, the more excited you are when a hoard of them are mere moments from breaking through a window as it seems there's no escape for our protagonists and other train passengers.
Busan also has a very generous helping of social commentary - something of a zombie film staple, but melded so well into this that it doesn't stick out or take you out of the film (aside for one particular scene at least.) So many emotional highs and lows - which as far as I'm concerned made this a damn fine night's viewing.
Train to Busan works on many, many different levels.
8/10
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50529742
The Wailing - (2016)
'16 was a great year for South Korean film.
The Wailing s an excellent and very rewarding excursion into the supernatural that is as much a thriller as it is a horror film. It has everything - possession, religion, mythology, zombies, demons - but it somehow manages to integrate all of that into such a grounded bed of reasonableness that the end result is unnerving. Full review
here, in my watchlist thread.
8/10