Train to Busan | Film review - A thrill ride with zombies on a train

A veritable thrill ride if ever there was, Korean horror movie Train to Busan will keep you pinned to your seat as a dwindling band of passengers on board a bullet train hurtling between Seoul and Busan fight to stay alive in the midst of an overwhelming zombie outbreak.

The pace is breakneck and the action relentless, but director Yeon Sang-ho still finds time to etch characters whom we can cheer or hiss, among them a workaholic, recently divorced fund manager (Gong Yoo) and his neglected daughter (Kim Su-an), a blue-collar roughneck (Ma Dongseok) and his pregnant wife (Jung Yumi), a high-school baseball player (Choi Woosik) and the girl with a crush on him (An Sohee), and a ruthlessly self-centered executive (Kim Euisung).

Which, if any, will reach the end of the line?

Certificate 15. Runtime 115 mins. Director Yeon Sang-ho

Train to Busan is available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Download from StudioCanal. An animated prequel, Seoul Station, is available on EST from 27 March and on Blu-ray & DVD from 3 April.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d4DACwz49o

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.