TRAIN
TO BUSAN
It
startS in a quiet office which is dissolving all of its stocks in the market.
Then it segues to the father and his family, his daughter being cared for by
his mom, as he is separated from his wife, geographically. As it is her
birthday, the daughter wants to visit her mom in Busan. Torn between the
demands of his office and his paternal duties, he accedes to her request and
then advises her to always finish what ever she has started. This was after he
had seen an uploaded video of her singing at school a song but stopping in the
middle as she had recalled her father.
While
taking the train to Busan, suddenly a writhing girl rushes as the last
passenger. She has bloody clothes while
vagrant hides inside a washroom and keeps repeating, “All dead,” several
times.
All
passengers are happy to be riding the train -
a group of baseball players and cheering squad are in one coach. Two
elderly sisters, a man with a pregnant wife, and the father with her daughter,
Su-an.
Suddenly
the writing girl gets up and bites a victim on the neck, vampire-like. The
victim rises and becomes a vampire too. In a coach, they infect everyone who
then turn to be collective vampires. The only way they could be contained is by
enclosing all of them in one coach.
As
the scene progresses, the characters – the couple – husband and wife, the
father and daughter look for ways to escape. The plot to escape is highly
thought of. The father and the husband deduce that the vampires are affected by
darkness and sounds. Immediately the father with two celfone gadgets on hand is
able to make the coach pitchblack. Then he slides one celfone on the floor.
Later on, he rings it which then makes all the vampires crowd around it. So the
unbitten passengers are able to escape.
The
script is able to concoct scenes that are extraordinary. The unbitten ones are
thrown into dilemmas that are difficult to resolve. A baseball player holds his
bat ready to pounce on the vampires but he could not strike at his co-player
who has been infected. The husband labels the work of the father, a fund
manager, a bloodsuckers. In the end, he pleads to him to take care of his wife
as he could not longer be strong enough to keep the door closed with the strong
band of the vampires trying to get in. A manager decides not to allow to enter
the other passengers trying to escape from the vampires because they could be
infected with the virus. Then he even rouses everyone to shoo them away as they
are able to get in. In the end, he himself gets infected and dies.
The
film is full of suspense as the scenes unfold fast-paced from the time the
train leaves the station. The entry of the last passenger, the writhing woman,
signals a not so quiet trip for everyone.
There
are other exciting and heart-pumping scenes as when the train meets a burning
depot and everyone has to unload. Another is when the father, the daughter, the
pregnant woman and the vagrant have to run after another train while hordes of
vampires try to reach them.
What
is the meaning of all these? I could see that the filmmaker is trying to
comment on a society built on trading of material goods, a society that sees
love as a very easy thing to ignite between two consenting people, a society
that is built on order without room for humane interaction or even the survival
of people, a society that is killing itself, its own people for no reason at
all save a desire for murder.
It
could be a blunt comment on the kind of society that Korea had built – very
wealthy but personally, people are not really connecting with each other in a
humane way. It is literally, in the film, a dog-eat-dog society built on
superficial relationships, even only physical, without emotional nor
intellectual attachments. The pursuit is gain, not really a life that fulfills
one's potentials, talents and humanity.
Yet,
the filmmaker is able to create a very interesting film given very few
settings, which take place mainly inside the train coaches, interior and
exterior. The acting is superb, everyone, young and old alike, men and women,
are able to focus on their roles without appearing conscious at all of the
camera. The characterization of the vampire is unique and really disgusting,
nothing imitative of any exorcist or horror film that I have seen. Funny, but
their gyrations remind me of Michael Jackson's dancing – shaking, and trembling
except that the heads are nearly falling off.The way the camera focused on the
mouths of the vampires, ready to devour a victim is really gblood-curdling. I
was really screaming from my seat!”
I
am really amazed at the film; in fact I did not think of the production crew at
all while the suspenseful scenes were unfolding. Usually, kasi, when I watch a
fearful film, I just imagine the crew shooting with all the cameras, cables and
boom mikes all around, to deaden myself whenever a scary scene emerges. But in
this one, I found myself, shouting, “Idiot, get out of there!” or “Hurry,
hurry, run, idiot!” I really immersed myself in the plot of the film, and
enjoyed it.
Then
I stayed on to listen to the last two orchestral pieces which are simple yet
memorable in their melodic phrases. They were just fantastic. I wonder if our Filipino movies are now employing orchestras to play their themes.
I
must say that this Korean film directed by Yeon
Sang-ho deserves whatever prize
it should get from any award-giving bodies.
Read plot from here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5700672/synopsis
No comments:
Post a Comment