This review was previously published as part of my coverage of Fantasia 2016
A zombie outbreak occurs in Seoul’s central subway station in Seoul Station. Every night, the homeless popular of Seoul descends upon the central subway station looking for a place to sleep. One night an elderly homeless man enters the station with a mysterious wound on his neck. Before long, the man turns into a zombie, marking the start of a full on outbreak in the underground tunnels. A young woman named Hye-Sun finds herself trapped in the chaos and has to get herself to safety, while Hye-Sun’s boyfriend Ki-woong and father Suk-gyu set out to search for her.
Seoul Station is an animated South Korean zombie film about an outbreak in Seoul’s subway system and is also a prequel to Train to Busan. While featuring much gory zombie violence, Seoul Station is very much a social allegory, particularly when it involves the homeless in Seoul. There is one scene where a police officer reports “the homeless are on a rampage” and there is another scene where survivors are trapped in between the zombie horde and a police blockade. In what is typical about many zombie films, it turns out that humans are a bigger threat than the zombies.
The animation style of Seoul Station gives the film a graphic novel-like appearance, with the zombies having a very exaggerated vieny appearance. The outbreak is framed by the attempt of Ki-woong and Suk-gyu to save Hye-Sun, who has found herself trapped in the center of the outbreak. Seoul Station makes a sudden turn towards the end, which puts the zombies on the backburner, in exchange for a much more human threat. Altogether, Seoul Station is an OK enough animated zombie thriller.
FAIR Screenings:
