Watched: Sober, practiced restraint because it was eight AM

I'm not a big fan of apocalypse films. And after watching Contagion with my friend, Aaron, months ago, I got my short fill of sudden illness related catastrophe movies. But, I was browsing Tubi with Wednesday, and she suggested watching Train to Busan. I finally agreed to, after a dozen previous declines. What can I say, I really don't care for action movies and zombies. But every once in a while, I'll humor my girlfriend. I know I've been hitting the nail on "I don't like movies like this typically" pretty hard, but it's because I'm pretty astounded with how it managed to impact me. I'm still thinking about it, and hell, I even decided to write a review about it.

Horror and sadness are one hell of a combination. I forgot this film also counts as horror, but that was implied by the whole 'zombie apocalypse' part. The beginning of the movie was pretty standard. A business man is obsessed with his job, needlessly working every waking moment of the day. At home, his mother takes care of his daughter, who has been pretty emotionally neglected by her dad. It's not that he ignores her altogether, but it's like whatever she says to him pretty much comes out of his other ear. He does the classic 'I bought you an expensive toy to prove that I love you' bit, but as she unwraps her new Wii (Wii U? Do they still make those? Or maybe it was a switch, but I don't know if they had those in 2016... let's see. I was a junior in high school, do I remember my friends playing on switches in class? Hmm. . .), she looks over to the exact console that she already has set up on her television stand.

But dad! I don't want your money! I want to see my mother, the woman you're not divorced from yet! Yet she lives in a separate district and you guys are no longer together! And of course, he makes another empty promise to her, but she puts her foot down. You always say you'll take me the next day, but you never, ever do! I don't know why the scene of her talking to her mom on the phone under a blanket in her dark room really got to me. Parent troubles always hurt my heart, even if it's just series of fleeting moments. But alas! Her father agrees, and her grandmother is pleased. Maybe now, your parents will be able to get back together.

Of course, the name of the film is Train to Busan so you can assume that the train ride to her mother is not going to go smoothly. . .probably. We see a series of different character mount the train, some that will become prominent characters later on in the film. All seems well. . .until. . .what's that? A woman have a seizure on the floor, covered in blood, and moaning? Oh no, is anyone one else seeing this? No one does for a considerable while, I felt like. A train attendant finally finds her, and the inevitable happens. She gets bit. That fucking woman was a. . . ZOMBIE?!?!

Things pick up pretty quickly, after an initial few minutes of confusion. Suddenly, everyone realize what's going on. Of course, they're all on a moving train, so more and more people are getting bit the farther they travel. And, oh, they can't stop because all of the stops before Busan can no longer be stopped at. The outbreak has reached them, too. So, all the passengers are stuck on the train, where more and more of them are getting bit and turned into zombies. The business man calls his mother, the girl's grandmother, and she's presumably been bit, but is not quite a zombie yet. For some reason, this phone call really fucking hurt. She says she loves her granddaughter so much, but she only wants her mom. Before the call is over, she says--What a bitch! And I can't tell if she's talking about the mother, or her granddaughter.

The only way to stay safe from the zombie is to close to door of one of the train cars. The doors are easy to open, they just slide, but the zombies are too dumb to realize how to open the doors. Also, if you block our their vision, either with a fire extinguisher or simply being in the dark whilst the train goes through a tunnel, they no longer think you're there. Other main characters are established as the catastrophe continues. They all broke my heart in different ways.

There's a pair of older women, who are sisters. They are seperated as they're pushed into other train cars to get away from the zombies. There is also a couple, where the woman is pregnant. The man is really one of the best characters in the film. They stay together, and the woman takes a liking to the daughter, who is obviously fucking traumatized. But they all are at this point. And there is also a group of baseball players (I think, they had bats, I'm not that bad at sports), but the main characters of the group is the single cheerleader that was allowed to come with them, and one of the members that she's close with.

They all seem to come together as a group, even though they are seperated at certain points. At some point, they all try to travel together to get to a train car that has been safe since the ride started. They have to hide in the dark, hide in bathrooms, and try to run for it while fighting off what they can. The man with the pregnant wife is critical of the business man at first, calling him selfish. But they end of working together with the younger baseball player to protect the pregnant woman, the daughter, one of the older sisters, and eventually the cheerleader. The cheerleader is in the safe train car for a while, trying to get them in. I'm trying to get this all right, I'm sorry this entry is all over the place. I don't remember any of their names, lol.

The man with the pregnant wife really got to me. There is a scene where he tells the business man, "Being a father is all about sacrifice." And jesus fuck, did he stick to his word. Once they get to the final train car right before the safe one, there is a hoard of zombies trying to break through the door, whilst the others beg the safe car to let them in. But the ones in the safe car don't want to let them in. They can't buy any more time, and eventually one of the zombies breaks through the door. The two men, both fathers, can no longer fend off the zombies trying to break through the door. The man with the pregnant wife looks at the business man, and tells him to go. To protect his wife, because he's about to fight the hoard. There is no way to escape, he knows he is going to have to make that SACRIFICE to protect his family. I was tearing up. The door breaks through, and he puts up a good fight, but he's eventually bitten.

The others finally manage to break through the door, but only a few of them make it. One of the older sisters is attacked by a zombie right before the door closes. The few survivors come in, and everyone is terrified, thinking they're already infected. There's this really annoying, selfish, terrible older man who fear mongers and says they have to go. They're pushed into the vestibule, and the others in the safe car tie door shut so that that they couldn't come back in.

Another scene that broke my heart was right after they pushed out. The surviving older sister looks at her sister through the door, who's grey in the eyes. Zombified. She calls her stupid for always being so selfless, for always wanting to help others before her self. Why couldn't you have been selfish just this once? She puts her hand up to the door, looking at her sister in the face. She almost looks normal. . .to her sister, she's not a monster. She's just sick. The camera pans away, and there is a lot of shouting suddenly. Presumably, the old lady opened the door to see her sister again. The zombies make it to the safe car, and chaos ensues.

The rest of the movie is continous fighting against zombies, the usual, what's already been happening. Eventually the group is narrowed down to the pregnant woman, the daughter, and the business man. As another train they managed to get on continues their route to Busan, there is a moment where there is one more zombie to fend off. I can't stop thinking about this ending. Oh god, the ending was so good. The business man makes his last sacrifice to his daughter. He gets bitten trying to fend off the zombie, and he immediately knows he has to show the pregnant lady how to operate the train, to make it stop. His daughter cries, begging him not to go.

But he has to, because he's about to turn into a zombie! So she screams and sobs inside the train, and he jumps off, in order to protect her. Eventually, the remaining two make it to their destination. They walk among debris and silence. They walk through a tunnel in the dark, some military freaks think they're zombies since their faces are obscured by the dark. They almost shoot them dead, but suddenly, they head something. The daughter. . .the girl, she's singing a song. Survivors! They yell. We have survivors!

For a movie in a genre I generally avoid, I really liked Train to Busan. I loved the development of each character, and just how much they managed to get me to care about them. I didn't want any of them to die, I knew it'd be painful. I didn't expect two fathers to make the same sacrifice, but that's the theme of the movie. You do drastic things to protect the ones you love, and that's just how it is. I would turn into a zombie if it meant I could save Wednesday, you know. It would suck, but I would. I think what really worked for me here is the fact that it was so sad, which really fleshes out the story in a way that most horror-action movies don't.

Most of the time, I feel like horror-action movies rely a lot of shock value, tons of excessive violence, and inexplicable death. A blood-and-gore fest. And that's alright! I think that's why a lot of people like them, and also, that isn't to say Train to Busan doesn't have any of these, lol. There is a violence and blood in this movie, but I feel like the deaths aren't empty and meaningless. You actually care about these people, and you want to see them survive. It's not just a count down to see how many people the writers wanted to kill off. Each death had *~*importance*~* I don't feel like I have any real, deep introspections on this film, but that's fine. Sometimes I just watch stuff and think, wow, that made me cry a lot. I didn't really think it would.