Seoul Station

Dir: Yeon Sang-ho

2016

***

Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie action thriller Train to Busan took horror fans by storm and was very well received upon release. If that wasn’t enough, Yeon Sang-ho decided to make a prequel that was to be released the same year. The prequel, Seoul Station, tells the story of how the zombie outbreak got on board the train to Busan in the first place, the only difference being that instead of live-action, Sang-ho decided to go back to what he does best and made it as an animation. I remember the same sort of thing being tried out with The Matrix but to varying success, here it works perfectly. The story takes place in and around Seoul station, rather unfortunately (and the film’s big fault in my opinion) a homeless man appears to be the source of a zombie apocalypse. The story revolves around two main characters: Hye-sun, who has just run away from her former life in a brothel and Suk-gyu, her father who searches for his runaway daughter, only to discover she has become a prostitute. Just as he is about to be reunited with her, a zombie epidemic breaks out in Seoul. Hye-sun now lives with her good-for-nothing boyfriend, Ki-woong, who intends to pimp her out again due to money problems. After a fight about this, the two separate and are caught in the chaos bursting out of Seoul Station. Hye-sun escapes with a few survivors into a police station and becomes trapped by a group of zombies within a jail cell, only to realize a surviving policeman in the cell with them has been bitten. Meanwhile, Suk-gyu poses as a customer to Ki-woong before interrogating him for her location. The two go to Hye-sun's home, only to find that the landlady has become a zombie. At the police station, the bitten officer calls for backup before succumbing to his infection. One of the survivors beats the officer unconscious, but the officer reanimates and bites another survivor in the cell. Help arrives and draws the infected away, allowing Hye-sun and an old man to escape the cell and get into an ambulance. The old man panics when he realizes they are en route to the hospital, where many reports of bite wounds appear to be coming in. He attempts to take the wheel from the driver and causes the vehicle to crash. Hye-sun and the old man flee through the subway. Outside the station, Ki-Woong calls Hye-sun but their conversation alerts the infected. The two are saved, only to realize they are placed in a quarantine by riot police. They learn from the authorities that they consider the crisis to be an insurrection. Survivors fighting in the quarantine slowly succumb to growing numbers of infected people. After a speech on his poor position in society, the old man tries to lead a revolt. He is quickly killed by gunfire, throwing the crowd into a panic as the infected consume them. Hye-Sun is then able to escape. Hye-sun makes her way into an empty showroom. She notifies Ki-woong of her location before falling asleep. When Ki-woong and Hye-sun are reunited, she reveals that Suk-gyu is not her father but rather her previous pimp who only refers to himself as her father. As an argument erupts, Ki-woong tries to attack Suk-gyu with a knife but is killed instead. Hye-sun tries to flee but Suk-gyu subdues her on a bed. As he prepares to rape her, she loses consciousness and seems to die. As Suk-gyu frantically applies CPR, he looks down and realizes she was scratched on her foot and infected. As Hye-sun reanimates and kills Suk-gyu, the camera zooms past a dead Ki-woong and the infected overrunning the quarantine. It’s a dark film, particularly for an animation. I have issues with a few elements of the story; I hate that the homeless are victimised and blamed for the outbreak and I do feel that because the film is animated, they could have gone a little more over the top with aspects of the story and in the action sequences. It is a film that could have easily been live-action without too much problem, so I don’t know why they didn’t push the boat out a little and get a bit crazy with it. The twist ending was a nice touch though. It might be Yeon Sang-ho’s most successful animation to date, although I loved King of Pigs. It is an unnecessary addition to the Train to Busan story but a very welcome surprise all the same.