Train to Busan - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Train to Busan



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


​

Movie
I’m a big fan of zombie movies. Well, at least I WAS until the genre just got saturated to the point of making me really wish for the rise of vampire and werewolf films again. I have gotten to the point where I see “The Walking Dead” (or “The Boring Dead” as I like to call it) come on and I’m running out of the room as fast I can. We had some fun movie concepts with “World War Z” and the “28 Days/Hours” later films, but I was ready for the franchise to die. However, Korea’s Train to Busan was getting rave reviews and has become one of THE most successful horror movies to come out of Korea ever. So naturally I was a bit intrigued and looked forward to checking it out myself. Thankfully the film lived up to all the expectations and reviews and was actually BETTER than I ever could have hoped for. Train to Busan takes quite a few standard genre tropes and mixes them together to create a uniquely terrifying film that had this jaded horror hound gleefully grinning from ear to ear as the movie unfolded. There’s a few flickering issues that crop up near the very end, but despite those little faux paus by the creators this was one INCREDIBLY fun zombie flick.

There’s not a WHOLE lot of plot detail for Train to Busan. We’re queued in to the fact that there has been some sort of chemical leak at the beginning of the film during the opening sequence and then shot right into it once we see a hit deer miraculously rise from the dead and stumble off with a sort of glazed look in its eyes. We’re then introduced to Seok Woo (Yoo Gong) and his young daughter Soo-an (Soo-an Kim). Seok Woo is a businessman who has very little time for his daughter except to give her platitudes and tell her that he’ll do better next time. He has a bit of a change of heart for a few moments and decides to grant his daughter’s wish to see his estranged wife (her mother) for Children’s day (a bit of a holiday in Korea). Being that his ex-wife lives in Busan, Seok Woo and Soo-an get on the express train and head on out to visit for the day. The only thing is, that strange phenomenon with the deer is going to follow them onto the train. A teenager girl who is sick with whatever chemical ailment the deer suffered from is brought on board and soon claims her first victim.

Soon after the first bite, the train starts erupting with violence. The zombie virus mutates quickly and claims victims within a matter of a minute of being bit, so the entire train is on the verge of being overrun. Seok Woo and Soo-an barely escape to the front of the train along with an expectant mother and her husband and a few other passengers. There the trapped passengers have to stay alive long enough to reach Busan and hopefully a quarantine zone as the rest of the world around them erupts into utter chaos with the zombies tearing through everything in their path.

As I said, Train to Busan blends several different genre tropes together to make the film. It starts out as a typical disaster film with differing groups of people getting on the train to Busan, each with their own back story and motivations. We get to care for each of them and start to learn about them and suddenly the disaster strikes. However, the film quickly changes into a horror/action flick that borders on a blend between elements of “World War Z” (the zombie “flood” and way they move and attack is very reminiscent of the Brad Pitt film for sure) and “28 Days Later”. The zombies are given a lot of prosthetic makeup and low levels of CGI to make a disturbingly creepy looking monster. Especially with the almost staccato motion that they mimic, reminding me of a body horror film as well.

Train to Busan IS a simple film really. There’s not a whole lot of verbal plot. People get on board the train and then people meet zombies. Easy peasy pudding and pie. What DOES make the movie more complex is the characters and their motivations. While Seok and Soo-an are two of the most important characters, director Sang-ho Yeon does a fantastic job at making each of the passengers on the train a fully fleshed out character. Husband of the pregnant woman, Sang Hwa (Dong-seok Ma of “The Good, The Bad, and the Weird”) is absolutely fantastic as the take charge layman, while Eui-sung Kim is deliciously repulsive as the sleazy businessman who will do anything he can to stay alive. Elements of the movie are very typical of the genre, but it’s the blending and re-ordering of these genre tropes that really makes Train to Busan completely unique. Camera angles, practical effects and the blending of body horror with zombies and a disaster just come together to make a wildly enjoyable movie that I can’t recommended enough. If I have one complaint about the film it's the final confrontation between the sleazy businesman and Seok on the train at the end. It felt a bit contrives and overly stupid for such a wildly thrilling hour and 40 minutes that came before.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

According to IMDB the film used the same 2K digital intermediate master from the 2017 Blu-ray for this 4K UHD release, but the results are actually quite striking. The 4K disc handily outclasses the Blu-ray by a good margin, showing much better detail levels and general clarity (look at the far out shot at the beginning of chapter 10 where the train leaves the tunnel. The amount of detail you can see in the surrounding landscape is staggering when you A/B it against the Blu-ray). The CGI can still be a bit soft looking, but the outdoor shots are really incredibly bright and vibrant. The HDR and DV application are especially well done, giving the film a deeply saturated look that makes the Blu-ray look almost dull in comparison by. Black levels are generally strong, but I noticed digital noise on the interior dark shots of the train at times. Otherwise this is an excellent upgrade over the Blu-ray.







Audio:

I'm always puzzled by why studios put out a film on Blu-ray with one format (in this case DTS:X) and then switch to the other in the 4K when they already have the master for a perfect next gen track. Maybe licenses on DTS:X have gone up? I don't know, all I know is that the Blu-ray had a fantastic DTS:X mix and the 4K UHD here has a fantastic Dolby Atmos mix that sounds pretty much identical after level matching. Both English and Korean tracks are given here, and the English track is very robust and healthy, but I’m not a fan of English dubs on Asian films so I naturally gravitate to the VERY nice Atmos track (the English is just 5.1 DTS-HD MA). It’s a powerhouse for sure with a great sense of immersion and intensity to it. The first part of the film is just a front heavy mix with a nice layer of background ambiance with the sounds of the train humming in the back channels and some good imaging up front. However, once the film gets going and the zombies start tearing through the passengers like tissue paper it REALLY takes off. LFE is deep and impressive with a sense of nuance and detail that makes is a force to be reckoned with. “Train to Busan” is not one of those films that just pulsates with LFE for no apparent reason, but rather uses the forceful low end judiciously and then slips into the background when not needed. Surrounds and overheads get some great use with the little tinks and creaks of the train as well as the zombies just swarming from all angles and enveloping the listening position with the sounds of terror.








Extras:

• That's a Wrap
• Behind the Scene
• Theatrical Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score: ​

Train to Busan is a film that defies conventions yet hugs tightly to them at the same time. There’s a lot of familiar material within the Asian zombie film, but it manages to make something unique and completely new out of those building blocks. I have to say it is now one of my favorite zombie movies of all time with a stellar Korean cast and some intense monster munching scenes that will have everyone but the extreme gore hounds satisfied. It’s creepy, heartfelt, wildly frenetic and completely and utterly a blast from beginning to end. “Train” was one of my most anticipated films back in 2017 and I’m thankful that it delivered the goods in spades some 5 years later. Well Go USA gives us a very nice 4K video upgrade and the same stellar next gen audio track to enjoy (just in Atmos form instead of DTS:X). My only complaint with the whole package is the very very slim extras , but don’t let that deter you from picking up one of the best zombie movies of the last 10 years. Highly recommended, and at $14.96 at the time of this review, it's a no brainer.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Yoo Gong, Soo-an Kim, Yu-mi Jung
Directed by: Sang-ho Yeon
Written by: Sang-ho Yeon
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: Korean: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), Korean DD 2.0, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 118 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 29th 2022

Recommendation: Great Buy

 

[Ralph Potts]

Greetings,

Excellent review Mike. We are in total agreement!