I have been reading copiously to pass the time. I particularly love Alice and Wonderland. I always have, since I was a little girl. I would often daydream about tripping into a whole Otherworld and wandered about in the woods... ah well, I suppose we grow out of some things. It is a lovely story!
I did not know that guardian angels eat so much. He seems ill. He's very thin. Perhaps with my cooking and care, he can once again reach his full power.
I have prepared the following meal for him in massive quantities:
My house guest preferred the second variety, which was cooked a bit more on the rare side and mixed with fewer spices. He is so peculiar!
Train to Busan | 10/10 | South Korean Zombie film
I'm going to leave this spoiler free! (If mentions of spoilers come of a "further down below", I was going to write more but decided against it this time)
To start this off, I need to just say; This movie was amazing. It was unique with the way it went about everything, and I loved the fact the zombie's had to rely on two specific senses.
While it's often for zombie films to include the horror of crowd mindset and the idea of the government withholding information that causes the country or world to be jeopardized. Infections spreading quickly is the most unrealistic aspect to this movie, but is ultimately needed to provide the issue the movie displays to you. At the very least, certain spots on the body caused the infection to seemingly take them quicker or slower, depending on the location. (Think; More vital areas cause a quicker death, verse less vital areas causing it to be a bit slower. Ie; A bite to the neck takes someone faster than a bite to the calf)
The movie, ultimately, includes a theme of self-redemption, and they did it wonderfully. A change of mindset can be quick if you let it be, or slow if you don't, or maybe not at all if you refuse. And in a situation with something like this? Sticking alone isn't going to do you wonders compared to sticking to a small group who can care for one another. Being selfish in a zombie apocalypse can cause you issues, even if it may get you a bit farther.
The characters in the film were well written if I must say so myself. Seok-Woo(The father we follow throughout the film) alongside Soo-an(His daughter) are the main two we follow throughout the film, and their characters include depth from the start. While you may not necessarily like Seok-Woo towards the beginning and may argue he isn't necessarily a good father, as the rest of the movie plays out, you begin to see he has his care for his daughter even if he wasn't there for her in the ways he should have been.
Soo-an is sweet and caring in contrast to her father in the beginning of the film, and is a major drive for the character development he goes through. Even in the situation where people are dying around them, she remains sweet towards the others around her, even though they're all strangers. The main ones we see provide her kindness back ends up being Sang-Hwa and Sung-Gyeong(The husband and pregnant wife, respectively).
Sang-Hwa, if I must say so myself, is a strong man with strong opinions, but despite those opinions, he doesn't let them cloud his judgement when trying to ensure the protection of Sung-Gyeong alongside Soo-an. Despite not liking Seok-Woo due to the information he knows about him, he doesn't try and get him killed for it. He doesn't put his life over anyone else.
Min Yong-guk and Jin-Hee are two young adults on the train as well, who we follow. Min Yong-guk and Jin-Hee are high schoolers traveling on the train with other members of the baseball team at the time of the movie. Throughout the film, it shows the love interest throughout the film without directly focusing on it. Min Yong-guk is the guy on the baseball team between the two, who ends up getting stuck alongside Sang-Hwa and Seok-Woo early in the film on one of the train carts.
While being terrified, he learns the habits of the zombies alongside the other two, focused on getting to Jin-Hee. Jin-Hee, meanwhile, is together with a larger group further up on the train. The distance between the two causes the push that was needed to push the movie onwards.
There is also the two old grandmothers, the two old sisters, as well. In-gil and Jong-gil. These two as well remain friendly towards Soo-an, and are consistently remaining close throughout the beginning of the film. You can see throughout they love each other, and have been together for as long as we can tell. They don't LIKE not having the other near, where they know they're safe. For those of us with siblings, can you even blame them?
We also have out main antagonist, who is well written enough that I feel.. Weird about him! Yong-suk is the chief operating officer of Stallion Express. He's cowardly, but is a clear vision on how many people would act in a zombie apocalypses. Cowardly and selfish, desperate to stay alive no matter what. While a lot of people don't want to admit it, he's a clear vision on what a lot of people would be in this situation.
This isn't to say he was a good person before that. From the beginning, he wasn't friendly to anyone. Insulting a homeless man on the train and talking bad about him and bragging about himself to Soo-an, he was not being shown as a good man. He's clearly selfish from even before the apocalypse, and I wouldn't put it past him to have sacrificed others to get to his position.
Speaking of the homeless man, this is a good example of someone who's cowardly and afraid, but not selfish. Just afraid. Who wouldn't be? While initially going to be kicked off the train, he ends up sticking around and never ends up with a name. Yet, I have to say, I really do love him.
There's, of course, other characters, but I'm not going to go through everyone else. There's more on the train, such as the conductor, family members to some of our cast, co-workers, and others. Each have their own stuff, and I would recommend just giving the movie a watch to see their own personalities, or read below the cut in the post for more details throughout the movie.
Now, I will go through the plot itself vaguely! The beginning is definitely to show and introduce some of our cast. It isn't really until the zombies are shown in the movie that the action takes off, but it takes off quickly. With how quickly the infection is shown to spread throughout the film, it makes sense to have the beginning to be more calm, then very quickly pick up pace when a girl who got bit runs desperately onto the train. Just one can lead to an outbreak, and on the train in specific? This is what happens. A small, enclosed space with people who don't know what's going on due to a government calling the outbreak "protests" and undermining the severity of the situation.
As stated before, the actions pick up quick. One infected quickly leads to another, which leads to two more, which only further leads to even more. It's violent quickly, and people rush to get out, showing how one person panicking leads to a crowd rushing fast. Crowding leads to issues as is, when it includes people fighting to get out, which makes them essentially easy prey for the zombies just behind them.
They try and get to safety only to figure out a lot of other places aren't safe either, which only pushes the crowd mindset to be seen more(See when zombies are first seen after arriving to the desolated train station) clearly. People react fast and are terrified, but the zombies aren't smart. They aren't zombies that have intelligence. Honestly one of the major saving factors for the group.
As the movie goes on, characters begin to be separated and picked off, being killed or moved apart from one another, to provide an issue in the movie for the characters to actively experience. Trying to stay alive in such an enclosed space with so many zombies provides a tense atmosphere. You begin to be worried for who is and isn't going to die. Who will or won't be bit, eaten, anything.
Some characters you know and end up liking end up dying, it's not a movie that holds back, and I have to appreciate that a lot. It shows the different deaths, it shows as they turn, how it looks similar to a tonic-clonic seizure looks(I wish to push the fact that seizures do not look like it exactly, and it wasn't supposed to be a representation of a seizures but an onlooker unaware of the zombies may assume it is one)
I will end this by talking about the ending.
When me and my friend got to the last scenes, we were left heartbroken. It was beautiful in such an agonizing way. It was well acted, the actors truly did an amazing job with the pure emotions. Many of the characters did not make it, and you're left feeling whatever you do over their deaths. If you feel nothing about it, that's fair!
But to give my own opinion? Like I said, I was devastated with the last deaths. It was sad to see how they went, the emotions they had to their last moments. The screams and cries of [Redacted name]. Of course the remaining survivors by the end of the movie are feeling hurt.
The song being sung in the tunnel? God, my heart ached.
I really can't think of a way the movie could have gone better. And to find out there is a prequel and sequel, that focus on adding to the world than adding to those characters? (Okay, admittedly, I don't know if the prequel adds onto the movie's characters or not, I haven't started it yet)
...
Oh yeah! There IS a prequel and sequel!
Anyways not sure what else to say . This movie was great and it hurt in the best way a movie can.
I've been sittin down with a friend of mine and recently been watching movies, and we watched Satan Slaves(2017 and 2022 ones) alongside Train to Busan and we had FUN
I wanna start posting on this account / site more, so hey! Gives me a reason!
So, I am gonna start doing movie reviews here or there, to have something fun to post and talk about, something fun to recommend
So I will start with Train to Busan since we only finished it a bit ago!
(In another post though)
Shoutout to the maned wolf, which is technically neither wolf nor fox but has its own genus called Chrysocyon! Why -
why are your legs so long?
I mean, intellectually, I understand that it’s because you live in grasslands and have evolved to be able to see over the grass, but emotionally… why? Are they?? Like that??? Surely there was a way to make your body more cohesive and proportional-looking?
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