Seoul Station

While others not only boarded but also ride the Train to Busan (title of the live action picture), we also get this animated feature which plays in the same "universe" as the other movie. Having said that, you do get different characters in the starring roles and a movie that does indulge in what would happen if a zombie epidemic hit a city. Relationships between characters and story-lines begin to unfold, as much as some of the human psyche is.

It's a nice little add-on or spin off to Train to Busan, but it's not a must watch to get the other movie or vice versa. It's also very explicit with its violence as is the other movie and we get a lot of action scenes too. It does get a bit cliché here and there (father/daughter story) and has some minor flaws along the way. Even so it is more than entertaining to watch

Even if it is animated, the characterizations and dialogue are pretty good including the facial animation.

The tension builds slowly and spares some time for some exposition but it creates a very effective atmosphere of slowly growing paranoia and fear.

There are enough interesting twists to keep you engaged until the ending and the climax is pretty dark. Like most apocalyptic films it has a final decision that you didn't see coming.

This is the first animated zombie film I have ever seen so I have to rate it the best. Well worth watching.

After a homeless person a zombie virus spreads rapidly and a woman must reunite with her boyfriend while her father also searches for her.

From director Yeon Sang-ho, packed with social realism especially around gender, this is an animated prequel to Train to Busan. Seoul Station is refreshingly different from its predecessor. It's avoids stereotypes, has plenty of tension, atmosphere, has all the blood, guts violence you'd expect but also has a solid twist at the end.

Highly recommend.

Here's a tip when being chased by zombies and you go through a door....close the door behind you!!!!

A few years ago I saw the South Korean animated move The King of Pigs (2011). I was very impressed with this dark, compelling and adult work. The director of that one, Yeon Sang-Ho, has now released a new animated feature, which is a zombie film called Seoul Station. The story focuses on various small pockets of characters as they try to survive the zombie pandemic in different parts of their city. The characters are all disenfranchised members of South Korean society, such as the homeless and members of the sex trade. Therefore, like is so often the way with zombie movies, there is an underlying subtext to this one which looks at these social issues as well as the undead mayhem.

Like The King of Pigs before it, Seoul Station is typified with an animation style that is not afraid to make its characters look like actual South Koreans, which is something that Japanese anime often avoids. It's a factor that adds a nice sense of authenticity to proceedings, with downtown Seoul itself presented in an equally realistic manner. The characterisation is also very strong, with a set of people here who you really root for. This fact means that we are more invested in their plight and so the various suspenseful scenes then have considerably more impact. This really is impressively tense for an animated movie with some moments that are genuinely pulse-pounding. It's also not afraid to pull its punches and has one effective dark unexpected turn in its story which only adds to the horror already witnessed. By the end, you would have to say that it's a pretty nihilistic movie which doesn't provide too many comforting answers. But it's all the better for not being afraid to execute its material this way. All-in-all, this is yet another very impressive animated work from Yeon Sang-Ho and a great example of that very rare beast, the animated horror movie.