Released on August 7, Train to Busan is the first zombie apocalypse horror film in South Korea and probably all of Southeast Asia.
Played by renowned South Korean actor Gong Yoo, fund manager Seok Woo is on a train taking his estranged daughter to his ex-wife in Busan. Of course since this is a zombie movie, an infected girl sneaks onto the train at the last minute and quickly spreads her infection amongst the passengers.
The remaining passengers have to struggle to survive as the train continues barreling down the track.
Although not really anything new, Train to Busan set a record in its home country by becoming the first South Korean film in 2016 to sell more than 10 million tickets. It was also well-received in Taiwan and Hong Kong and many other regions and countries in Asia.
"Train to Busan broke the box office record of South Korean films in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and it broke the record for most illegal downloads of a South Korean film in Chinese mainland," movie critic Dark Knight joked about the popularity of the film on Sina Weibo.
While Dark Knight posted this in jest, it does reveal that a large number of Chinese moviegoers have been finding all kinds of ways to watch the zombie-themed thriller, as this type of film would barely have a chance of making it past the censors and onto the silver screen in the mainland.
Left behind
"I've watched a fair share of zombie movies and TV shows, but none of them spoke to me like Train to Busan, because none of them felt real," movie fan Jin Lili told the Global Times.
Although she appreciated watching Brad Pitt fling himself onto a helicopter in World War Z, Jin had a hard time relating to the situation.
"But everybody can easily imagine what it must be like to be attacked on a train and having to make a choice between saving yourself at any cost or helping others… There's no single hero in this film, no dazzling god that saves the day, only ordinary people like you and me making choices in the face of a crisis. And that's what I love about this film," Jin said of Train to Busan.
Fighting fast-running zombies with just a baseball bat and bare fists instead of using guns or powerful weapons is far more relatable for most Chinese moviegoers. The touching relationship between the families in the film, a father and daughter, siblings, a husband and wife and even young couples, also earned quite a lot tears from audiences in China.
But what captured the attention of Chinese audiences the most was the feeling that South Korean films have left Chinese films far behind.
"On one hand, I felt that the film was really awesome, but on the other hand, I'm left worried that China's films falling further and further behind South Korean films," Luo Taotao commented on media review site douban.com.
"Over the years I have felt that Chinese films have been improving, but then I watched Train to Busan and I suddenly feel like we are 10 years behind."
Film envy
This is not the first time South Korean films have been well-received by Chinese moviegoers.
Courtroom drama The Attorney starring Song Kang-ho, based on a real crime case in South Korea, was also a hit among Chinese moviegoers.
Train to Busan's Gong also appeared in Silenced, a film based on the true story of children with hearing impairments who were sexually assaulted by teachers at their school.
The film was so well-received domestically and internationally that it drove the National Assembly of South Korea to revise legislation to protect minors and the disabled from sex crimes.
In both films, the South Korean directors do more than just depict horrifying crimes, but go deeper to comment on society and the good and evil of human nature.
The well-developed nature of South Korea's film industry and the freedom they have to depict profound topics in films is something that Chinese filmmakers and moviegoers envy.
Not all the criticism of the film has been positive. Some have pointed out that the film features many of the same cliché plots that appear in numerous other zombie films, while others have called the film a "copycat" of Western zombie films.
However, Luo defends the film, saying, "Train to Busan is a typical zombie film... But it is a real Asian zombie film which has elements that Asians will relate to but probably be hard for Western people to understand. The morals and ethics, codes of conduct and rules commonly seen in Asian society are all in this story."
One of the reasons Train to Busan has struck such a strong chord with Chinese audiences may be related to the current Chinese film market. While this market has been growing rapidly and a number of commercial hits have been popping up recently, many films, even those with high box-office returns are often criticized for their terrible quality.
Many moviegoers are now pointing out that one of the biggest problems is that Chinese moviegoers cannot choose what films are available in theaters.
Since the mainland lacks a rating system, bloody horror films such as Train to Busan are never seen in theaters, even when they are critically acclaimed. In the end, Chinese moviegoers have no choice but to turn to illegal means to watch them.
"Imagine if industry insiders were more respectful of movies, censorship was more tolerant and we used Train to Busan as our standard, it wouldn't be hard for us to produce a 'Train to Beijing' or 'Train to Shanghai,'" popular movie media outlet DSMovie posted on its WeChat page.
"Good films should not be forced to stay in hard drives," the article added.
Source: Global Times by Li Jingjing