I was pleasantly surprised to see some familiar actors appearing in the film. Having heard about the movie and seen the trailers, I was fully expecting a horror zombie flick. Which it partly was. Yet it was also so much more. The interaction between the two elderly sisters reminds the audience of the human background against which this horror fest is taking place. That is reinforced by the incongruous sight of a brusque blue collar worker who is full of bluster to everyone else but really is a caring husband who is sweet to his pregnant wife. Think bear with caramel centre LOL
The audience is prepared from the first to be cynical about the main character, Seok Woo, who is a cold fund manager dealing with life almost as an automaton. He flounders dealing with work, hierarchy(an important element both in understanding more subtle aspects of the movie as well as Korean society itself) and family. For an Asian society apparently built on notions of prioritising collective good above that of the individual and whose values are based on respect for the elderly, the slice of Korean society that is on display in the film speaks of cynicism, selfishness and a disintegration of values when survival is at stake. It also speaks of the dire consequences of that which is at stake when the ugliness of humans emerges: basic human decency.
Where the main character seems to advocate everyone for themselves initially, his character undergoes transformation, a positive one where he cooperates with the blue collar worker and a high school student in battling entire train cars of zombies to reach and rescue their loved ones. There's poignant humour and straight sentimentalism in many of the scenes between battling zombies and these are the scenes which remind the audience that this is more than a cringe-and-scream fest. The redemptive process that Seok Woo's character undergoes is set up as a parallel to what other characters, especially the CEO of Stallion Express who is a clear douchebag from the moment the zombie infection spreads, undergo. Their human veneer betrays a callousness that is inhuman, leaving them on par with the infected zombies. The act of the grieving elderly woman who is disgusted by the selfishness of her fellow passengers and stunned by her sister's sacrifice is final condemnation of the extremes to which selfish humans, practising a perverse version of the collective good principle in expelling suspected infected members from a safe community, go when survival is threatened.
That the CEO's actions virtually end in infecting everyone else apart from the pregnant lady and the child speaks volumes of how the social elite behave when individualism and selfish self-preservation trump the last dregs of humanity. Fortunately, that cynical bitterness is counteracted by the blooming of Seok Woo's humanism and act of self sacrifice at the very edge of his zombie transformation.
Is it trite? Yes. Is it sentimental? Yes. Is it good for a scare? Yes. Yet, for all the fluff, this movie still moves on levels unexpected.
Rating: 4 stars - go watch, what are you waiting for?
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