Last night I completed a two-night re-watch of the South Korean zombie film Train to Busan.I originally reviewed this movie January 2017 when I had the good fortune to see it in a local micro-theater. At that time I gushed over the film and for Christmas my sweetie-wife gifted me with the Blu-ray edition. So, how does it hold up two years later? Have scales fallen from my eyes and have flaws now made themselves suddenly prominent in the bit of cinema?

No.

Off the top of my head and without digging deep into the history of zombie movies I’d place this film within the top three zombie movies of all time. Mind you I am speaking of quality and not importance. Train to Busan ranks along side the 1978 Dawn of the Dead  and 2004’s Shaun of the Dead as zombie movies that transcend genre and move into the realm of art. Where Dawn  using it’s time to slyly comment on consumerist culture and Shaun  uses it’s rom-com format to address life when it is unexamined, Train with its passengers slicing through the various strata of Korean society, comments on the nature of individuals and their relationship to each other, most exemplified by the estrangement between the lead and his daughter, but the theme echoes in interactions throughout the cast with no character, not even the self-serving and villainous business man, lacking in human depth and need for connection with those they love and cherish.

Re-watching the film I am thunder-struck by the performances. Not simply the leads, who are all fantastic, but every small part if played with the life and vitality of a serious performance. Simple expression and single lines of delivery suggest complex interior lives for characters that are never even granted to the honor of being named. Not to be overlooked are the amazing mime performances of the actors portraying the zombies. Twisting and contorting their bodies the actor exude a sense of inhumanness that turns what had become a tired and standard screen monster into something that again can truly terrify.

By the heart wrenching ending of the film I was thoroughly engrossed in the characters fully invested emotionally, Train to Busan  is a fantastic film.