Seoul Station (2016)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Fantastic!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Movie: Seoul Station (15)Rating: 4/5TRAIN TO BUSAN turned out to be the best zombie apocalypse action thriller, in my opinion. I had never seen a film of this genre before, and thus I enjoyed it fully. Coming from the same director and called a prequel to TRAIN TO BUSAN, SEOUL STATION is a decent animated zombie horror flick, even though not as great as the former. There's nothing to talk about the performances, given the fact that it's an animated film. The film's storyline is quite decent, and this one looks quite scary at times. The screenplay is amazingly written, and the film grips you completely. The film doesn't have many great action sequences. There are a few but are not too great to be remembered. The animation, too is a little tacky as it lowers the impact the film would've had, had it not been animated.But director Yeon Sang-ho holds the attention of the viewer, and delivers not only entertainment but also a hard-hitting social message as he did in TRAIN TO BUSAN. This is what makes him and films different from those of others.SEOUL STATION is not as great as TRAIN TO BUSAN, but holds its own independent value as a film. If you'll compare it to TRAIN TO BUSAN, you might be disappointed, but if you won't, then you won't be.

I watched Train to Busan recently, and like everyone else I enjoyed it and appreciated the color in the characters combined with the simple social commentary in there about working. It wasn't earth- shattering stuff though, since it was still a genre film, and did still paint in broad strokes, giving characters tragic, heroic, or comeuppance style exits. The prequel Seoul Station takes a similar approach although with several key differences. Of course the narrative and setting differs, but the biggest chances are in focus and tone. In this prequel we are in the lowest classes – the homeless, those hustling try to make it through the next day, those not seen by regular people. The tone is also significantly harsher and bitter than Train, and there is almost no sentiment here at all.This is a satisfying change and makes the film more effective as a zombie film. We those trying to do right by others are let down by those above, and consumed by those below them (the raging zombies). Those that last the longest are those that generally look out for themselves and take opportunities without thinking of others, while those that pause for the sake of others are usually lost. I'm not suggesting that the social commentary is worthy of great discourse, but at the same time, looking back at 2016 as the year where angry protest votes against establishment figures gave us Brexit and Trump, it is hard not to view the film in this light – with the authorities failing those at the bottom, only for a destruction and unfocused rage to destroy what those in authority were seeking to build.The film carries this cynicism through from start to finish, and produces some good plot turns that feed into this even more. It can seem overly harsh at times, but I enjoyed how simple and stripped down it was in what it did. The animation was not wholly successful – I didn't always like the appearance or movement of the characters within the landscape, although it did give it a cartoony/comic-book feel which did also help with the genre feel. Mostly though it worked and moved well, with the plot and action making me less concerned with such specifics.In the end, it is the sense of cynicism and harshness that makes the film work, with the plight of those on the edge of society being a strong focus, and linking to what happens when support networks fail so dramatically.

SEOUL STATION is an interesting animated zombie film from South Korea, made as a kind of prequel to the huge hit TRAIN TO BUSAN but otherwise quite different in scope and style. Those looking for zombie film thrills and antics will find a few scenes of interest, but otherwise this is something quite different: a piece of social commentary, something which will be no surprise if you've seen the same director's bullying drama KING OF PIGS.The story follows a number of working class characters as they encounter a zombie outbreak and struggle to survive. The characters have real depth here and the director is more interested in charting their internal struggles in relation to society than the actual zombie threat; the dramatic climax of the film doesn't feature zombies at all. The animation is basic but the film is fast-paced and always interesting, even if it's a lesser piece in comparison to TRAIN TO BUSAN and KING OF PIGS.

If I am not wrong, Yeon Sang-Ho's Seoul Station was made earlier than Train to Busan, but it was not released because the studios feared it will be a disaster because animated feature films don't do well in Korea. But of course the massive success of Train to Busan changed all that. Seoul Station is neither a prequel or sequel to TtB, but it uses the same father-daughter plot device to great effect. How the zombies apocalypse began is never told and the story zooms in on certain groups of people who are trying to survive in the zombie pandemic and the government locking down hard on the people. ST (my local newspaper) gave it 4.5 and said it is the better of the recent two Korean zombie flicks. IMHO it is not. It doesn't push the envelope of the genre to anywhere new. In all fairness to it, neither did TtB. But what TtB managed to do awesomely right was it suddenly made the genre fun all over again. The energy was infectious and relentless as the motley crew was stuck in a fast train going to God knows what. I just love the amazing ideas the rag-tag team comes up with to move from one zombie-infested train car to the next. Seoul Station, on the other hand, just isn't that fun. The tone is much serious and ominous. Unlike having some good-looking actors we can ogle at in TtB, we get the disenfranchised of Korean society. By that I mean the homeless and the other people at the lowest rung of the social ladder. Yeon is obviously commenting on the Korean society and the narrative is not even subtle. He also explicitly implicates the government in its elitist way of running the country. I like the bare animation style - the characters are drawn in hard lines and Yeon is adamant in portraying the unlikable characters in unlikable ways. There is no sugar- coating here. But the unlikable qualities give way to more interesting characters. I found myself getting sucked into the story as different pockets of people try to handle or escape their dire situations. Our attention is focused on the father and daughter who are trying to make their different ways towards each other in a city crawling with zombies. I thought the story is just moving towards the inevitable and was totally gobsmacked by a twist I didn't see coming. Even the irony of climatic setting hit me in the guts. Seoul Station is a good companion piece to Train to Busan, but on its own it feels somewhat smaller in scale and less urgent.