For several years, in the golden age of streaming, Train to Busan found a home on Netflix US. The film was always a phenomenal successful both at home and abroad. And almost a decade later, Hallyu (the Korean Wave) has reached new heights, and with that, Train to Busan, the 2016 zombie film about fatherhood, has earned a special seat among the wave’s other heavyweights: BTS, Squid Game, Black Pink, “Gangnam Style,” Sky Castle, Naver’s Webtoon site, Parasite. The accessibility provided by streaming services like Netflix was no small part of the rise in position. 

The talented and always delightful to look at Gong Yoo plays the selfish workaholic hedge fund manager Seok-woo. He’s a shitty father to Su-an (Kim Su-an), who, in sad irony, asks her dad for the birthday present of taking her to her mother in Busan. In retrospect, the role stands out in the actor’s filmography for his initial coldness and despicability. (It’s no Coffee Prince, that’s for sure!) The only train that will satisfy Su-an leaves in the sad space between night and morning. Just as the KTX embarks from Seoul, in an information (and trope) rich shot, an injured and panicked passenger slips on unnoticed. The simple shot communicates so much with so little; it’s also the movie’s first moment of horror since the VFX masterpiece prelude featuring a zombie deer. The observer view’s of the injured passenger fiasco creates a sense of providential urgency for Seok-woo, whose own distanced parenting leads to the worst day of his life: his daughter’s birthday. Now he must learn how to be a dad during a zombie apocalypse before his last opportunity passes. 

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