The Train to Busan is a kinetic, edge of the action-packed thriller that depicts occurrences in South Korea in the wake of a terrible pandemic. The zombie apocalypse movie portrays various themes, including fear of death, suspense, violence, and the end of the human race. The most dominant theme in the film is the apocalypse that threatened the human race. Like most zombie movies, Train to Busan digs deep to depict what it means to be human in the wake of pandemics.
Watching the movie makes the viewer question humanity and their reactions to adversities that are life-threatening. This issue keeps ringing in our heads as we see different people's behavior and how they act when faced with decisions that test their very doctrines of morality. Their actions further propagate the violence and inhumanity that is evident in the movie. Ordinarily, one would expect that people who exist in one ecosystem with shared beliefs and traditions would be there for one another and unite against a common enemy. However, these very principles are tested to the limits as each individual strives to survive in the wake of a gruesome zombie apocalypse.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Witnessing the movie unravel through the eyes of a young, innocent Su-an gives a clear picture of humanity's failure. The girl represents the innocence and purity in the world. Her father, Seok-woo, a fund manager, is a workaholic who is divorced. He and Su-an embark on a journey to Busan by train so that her daughter could spend her birthday with her mother. Initially, there is peace and tranquility in the communities, and it is evident through the harmony observed in residents. The picture portrayed in this place before the apocalypse broke out is different. People are concerned about the welfare of others and their well-being. This is seen early on when Seok-woo’s mother is concerned about the welfare of his son and the current marital problems facing him. She even encourages the son to try and make up with his wife for the sake of their daughter. This display of concern is what humanity traditionally represents. It entails caring about your neighbor and everyone else in society. However, as we have seen in the movie, the idea of end time ruins humanity's whole fabric and makes us question even the simplest of rational acts.
Seok-woo board a train en route to Busan. The other passengers on the train include a high school baseball team, a selfish COO Yon-suk, a working-class man named Sang-hwa, his expectant wife Seong-kyeong, and a homeless man. There are also two sisters named In-gil and Jong-gil. Just before the train departs, an infected woman boards it. By this time, the infection had spread to major towns, and so many people had turned into blood-thirsty monsters that hunted the living. The infected girl becomes a zombie and instantly attacks a train attendant. This leads to subsequent infections that spread rapidly throughout the train. Everyone is scared, and they manage to act quickly to stop the zombies from getting to their carrier. Even as they were running from the other carriages, they display humane behavior when they help each other get to the other end (McKeown, 2020) . As they strive to survive, Sang-hwa, together with other passengers, holds the door for Seok-woo, who makes it just in time to escape the zombies. Until that point, their unity undoubtedly kept them safe.
The theme of questioning humanity is first encountered when Seok-woo learns that his business is directly related to the factory responsible for the infections. He selfishly attempts to use his connections to access safety for him and her daughter. Instead of considering the other passengers in the train and their susceptibility to those blood-thirsty creatures, he makes his family’s safety his only mission. That shows an inhuman way of treating people who came to your rescue when you needed their help. Seok-woo's behavior shows how easily people tend to act out of their self-interests when faced with the threat of human extinction.
In a country with a complex social hierarchy and a very low social mobility, the passengers in the train represented these diverse social classes in South Korea (Chull Lee, 2017) . It is expected that they go beyond these limits of class to help each other survive during this time, but that is not the case. Some of them are ruthless and show no compassion or sense of brotherhood to others (McKeown, 2020) . After the train stopped at Daejeon Station, where the survivors believed they would find sanctuary, their humanity is tested. Sang-woo, Sang-hwa, Yong-guk, and two baseball players stay back to hold the door to ensure that there is enough time for everyone to get back to the train. This selfless act allows Seong-kyeong, Su-an, and In-gil to manage to get on the train just in time. Since zombies had overrun the station, the conductor decides to head the train to Busan where the military had established a quarantine zone and kept it virus-free.
Yong-guk, Sang-hwa, and Seok-woo’s group get separated from their loved ones in a different car. They forge a plan to go through the horde until they reach the front car that sheltered other surviving passengers. In his efforts to hold off the zombies, Sang-hwa gets bitten by one of the zombies. This depicts the height of self-sacrificing for the greater good of others. Giving up everything for the well-being of other people you have barely known is an accurate representation of selflessness (McKeown, 2020) . When many people would opt to be selfish and take care of themselves, only such an act is a true symbol of humanism.
As the movie unravels, individuals' actions prompt us to question their sense of compassion. Yon-suk intentionally and mercilessly feeds the train attendant to the zombies to distract them while he escapes. He even incites other passengers to lock the door to their car to stop Seok-woo and his group from joining the rest of the passengers.
According to Youn Sung-eun, a critic of the movie, people only tend to act in ways that benefit themselves (Buchanan, 2018) . People’s behavior is questionable during times of adversities.
References
Buchanan, J. (2018, August 20). Train to Busan: A masterpiece of social commentary | Filmosophy . https://www.filmosophy.co.uk/train_to_busan_social_commentary.html
Chull Lee. (2017). When zombie met capitalism: A study of the role of leading characters in the movie, "Pusanhaeng"(Train to Busan). Theological Thought , (178), 201-243. https://doi.org/10.35858/sinhak.2017..178.006
McKeown, W. (2020). Self-sacrifice in train to Busan (2016). New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film , 17 (1), 69-84. https://doi.org/10.1386/ncin_00005_1
