Train to Busan – an emotional rollercoaster with a BRILLIANT script.

Just watched the long-awaited Train to Busan with N and it was absolutely spellbinding, riveting, and emotionally heartfelt.

Who's the scriptwriter behind this movie?!? I'm so impressed!

Most movies these days are just…meh to me. It doesn't help that being a writer myself, I can usually guess what's gonna happen next in a movie. Whenever I whisper to N about what I think will happen during shows, he always says it is wasted that I'm not a scriptwriter LOL.

This movie caught my attention when my friends told me that it garnered plenty of good reviews. I was supposed to watch this previously with @Cepheus and gf but in the end obviously that didn't happen.

Does anyone else think that the lead actor (playing the role of a divorced father) looks like Song Joong Ki?

Such an uncanny resemblance!

I also really love the lead actress who plays the pregnant lady… Watched her in a K drama previously and I love how her makeup always looks so natural!

N also said he thinks she's super pretty 😂

Trying to dissect what made this movie such a hit. The best comparison would probably be against other zombie films – Cell, Cooties, World War Z, etc.

I thought all except the last one sucked.

But Train to Busan really comes up top. I think the magic is in how they managed to spend enough time weaving in the individual stories of a few key passengers on the train, so that when they finally lost the battle against the zombies, we as the audience actually FEEL something.

And the beauty of it was how the scriptwriter managed to weave them all together so seamlessly to one entire web of an unforgettable story.

The baseball team and the cheerleader.
The two sisters.
The pregnant lady and her uncouth but henpecked husband.
The little girl and her workaholic father.

One of the saddest parts for me was when the father tells his daughter to think about herself instead of others at a time like this.

The little girl then cries as she tells him, that is why Mom left, because you only cared for yourself.

The look in the man's eyes as the truth sinks in is…😭

This movie has one ingredient which is sorely missing from many films today: it has heart.

The main lead is forced to acknowledge the fact that he has been a terrible father absent for the most part of his daughter's life.

Most movies spend too little time on character background and development that they fail to make the audience be able to relate. Train to Busan, however, was splendid in this.

The Koreans really know how to tug at our heartstrings!

The social commentary here is unmistakable. It is telling how the business executives are portrayed as self-centred who will stop at nothing to survive, even if that means pushing others to death's door just to buy a few seconds to escape.

The innocence of the young girl shines bright like a light at the end of the tunnel as her father is forced to come to terms with his own moral failings.

Did anyone also realise that when the outbreak starts in the train, no one really notices the strange girl walking with a curious limp because the train conductor and nearby passengers are too busy trying to get a homeless man to leave the train?

Social class disparity right in your face!

I also loved how the filmmaker lets us into the battle plan by quickly establishing the ground operatives of the zombies : they fight based on sight and sound, their brains are no longer functioning, and the infection spreads in seconds once a victim is bitten.

Notice also the nice play of karma in the middle of the film when the passengers refuse to let the group in for safety despite knowing that a whole horde of zombies are chasing them…I loved this nod.

Sigh, I could easily watch this again, and I want to! Hands down the best zombie movie EVER.

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