Questions for Dec 15 discussions
Read
the film reviews of Train to Busan carefully
(collected from online news media and film blogs), and try to engage with the points
of discussions with the critical frameworks you have learnt from 1) film genres;
2) zombie studies, and probably many more…?
Is
there such a strand that we could safely call, an Asian film genre?
Review 1:
S. Korea's Hit Zombie Film Is Also A Searing Critique
Of Korean Society
The plot isn't
complicated: Everyday South Koreans find themselves trapped on a speeding
bullet train with fast-multiplying zombies, creating the kind of claustrophobic
feel that freshens up the zombie trope. But beyond a fast-paced summer
thriller, it's also an extended critique of Korean society.
"We don't
trust anyone but ourselves," says film critic Youn Sung-eun, who writes
for the Busan Daily. Without giving too much of the story away, the film blames
corporate callousness for the death toll. The government covers up the truth —
or is largely absent. And the crew? Rather than rescue passengers, it follows
the wishes of a businessman.
In the film,
those in charge — and the media— "are easily manipulated by others,"
Youn says, which she said is a message the film's director was sending about
the institutions here. These themes are particularly resonant in South Korea,
which in 2014 faced national tragedy after 300 people, mostly teenagers, died
when a ferry overturned in the sea. Investigators found the ferry's corporate
owners overloaded it to save money. And the captain and crew got into lifeboats
without rescuing passengers.
News media,
toeing the government line, originally reported that everyone survived. The
Korean president's whereabouts on that day are still unexplained. "After
that accident, we have big trauma," Youn says.
It didn't let
up. Last year, as Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, spread in South
Korea, the government didn't disclose key information about where patients were
being treated and how officials would contain the outbreak, instead demanding
that people trust them.
Review 2:
TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016): CLASS CRITICISM IN
SOUTH KOREAN CINEMA
Since the
popularity of “The Walking Dead” and “World War Z,” it was not surprising that
a zombie apocalypse would make its way to South Korean film. However, while the
West is more focused on the common struggle of everyone, it wouldn’t be a
Korean disaster movie without class warfare, and/or criticism of the upper
class. Korean cinema itself has long been in the tradition of being the
artistic medium with the most activist agenda, especially when compared with
mediums like K-dramas or K-pop. That being said, the disaster genre has
recently taken on the mantle of activism and social commentary particularly
through highlights of the ways in which upper class negligence results in the
destruction of all of society. “Train to Busan” takes on this theme by making
Seok-wook’s company ultimately responsible for the outbreak of the virus. The
negligent corporation with the business man figure that is more concerned with
profit than consequences is also seen in Bong Joon-ho’s “The Host,” where toxic
waste is thrown haphazardly into the Han River, which births the monster that
wreaks havoc years later...
The second mark
of upper class criticism that trends in South Korean disaster cinema is that of
the high price that is often paid by the upper class despite their attempts to
insulate themselves using money. It’s similar to the rich people attempting to
use cash for gain seats on the lifeboats at the end of “Titanic.” While class
conflict is a theme in “Titanic,” it never takes the front seat as it does in
“Train to Busan.” Though more traditional films might have upper class folks
getting their chance for redemption, the folks in the front of the train who
have paid for comfort get wiped out nearly completely by the end of “Train to
Busan.” Also, the physical action of having those people in the coach section
become the monsters that the upper class always feared the lower class was —
complete with the horrifying desire to attack, bite, feed from them, and
ultimately destroy them. “Snowpiercer” is “Train to Busan’s” twin in that
regard. Both films severely punish the upper class for their negligence and
survival is almost always reserved for members of the lower class — especially
women and children. The tendency to punish the rich for their negligence in
some of the most wonderfully gruesome ways is contrasted with the often either
quick or martyred deaths of the common men. Without spoiling “Train to Busan’s”
list of death scenes, every character that does not belong to the upper class
is treated with a respect and melodramatic mourning of their death. This
contrast and the rather punitive deaths to the seemingly corrupt wealthy class
all contribute to the South Korean upper class criticism motif.
Beyond the
negligence and the punishment of the upper class, “Train to Busan” and other
Korean films like it almost always glorify the poor as those with the most
admirable characters. Even if these characters do not survive, they are treated
with the most humanizing characteristics, backstories, and are usually far more
developed than their upper class counterparts. While “Train to Busan” does
focus on Seok-wook’s journey from being a selfish hedge fund manager to a
decent human being, it is the characters around him like his daughter, his
wife, his mother, and many of the working class train car, that receive much
more screen time and characterization. It may be a valid criticism that “Train
to Busan” does sometimes rely on character tropes to push the story forward
(re: the main villain beyond the mass of zombies in the back of the train), it
is arguable that this is a purposeful refusal to humanize the upper class as
yet another way to critique the way in which wealth is destructive.
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