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The Norseman

The Norseman

The Norseman

Korean film keeps audiences on edge of seats with suspense, intrigue

I’m going to be honest, Train to Busan had me crying non-stop in the final scenes of the movie. While I’m not going to spoil what happened for those who haven’t seen this movie yet, I would recommend watching it.

In Train to Busan, a father takes his daughter to go see her mother for her birthday via train. Sounds sweet, right? Well, yeah, it is… if it weren’t for the zombie outbreak that unfortunately happens in the middle of the trip.

I was sad and shocked by the end. I never thought I could hate a movie character as much as Yong-Suk, the cowardly mayor who unnecessarily got people killed to save himself.

As someone who is a huge fan of The Walking Dead, and will watch anything with zombies, I expected this movie to be great, and I wasn’t disappointed. The only drawback is that the movie is in Korean, and I had to read subtitles throughout the movie. Although it was great, it also had some pretty sad moments throughout the film, and nothing could have emotionally prepared me for the last 20 minutes.

One reason this movie is so unique is because people expect a zombie movie/show to be a shoot ‘em up type film with a helicopter that comes by to save everybody towards the end, but that wasn’t the case here. There wasn’t a single firearm in the movie; it was all hand-to-hand combat, which made for some intense moments.

Train to Busan shows the sacrifices a father is willing to make for his child, which is a nice message. This movie has also has some true character development in characters, sharing the transformation from a selfish man who only cares about his family’s safety, to the point where he is willing to risk his own to save others.

The plot was more than zombies taking over and fighting to defeat humanity. Despite being in Korean, and me not being familiar with the language or culture, I say they were amazing actors, with an animated prequel called Seoul Station, and a sequel to begin shooting in 2019, I’d say this will be a very popular series, and definitely won’t die out anytime soon, the acting was great, it really gave off credible feelings, that little girl really sold her performance towards the end.

Overall, Train to Busan was an enjoyable movie that actually surprised me with its plot points. Most scary movies these days rely on gore and quick scares, and while this movie did have some of that, this one actually impacted audiences with a range of emotions, creating a much more complex film.

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