Seoul Station (2016)

just watch it!

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The beginning and middle of this movie were decent. Not perfect by any means though.The zombies were a bit strange to me. They seemed robotic. Meandering around and then suddenly swiveling their heads to lock onto people that they just happen to know are there. Also, the lunging onto people and then the other zombies completely ignoring the freshly downed human flesh didn't seem realistic to me. Is there a one zombie per person rule I should know about? The worst part of the movie though, and least believable part, was the dude pretending to be the father the entire movie and then being revealed as some person trying to collect a debt. Are you serious? The fucking zombie apocalypse breaks out and you are that determined to wade through a city of the undead and punch policemen to find a girl that owes you money? Hahaha.Overall, I find that last part of the movie to not only detract from the quality of the movie but also add some comedy that wasn't there before the reveal.Watch Train To Busan if you want a really well done foreign zombie flick and leave this one for the bottom of the barrel.

This is another Sang-ho Yeon's animated movie that takes on a dark, nihilistic, skeptical and overly cynical direction. That tries to mainly show the negative, selfish and manipulative side of human nature. How just about everyone does things out of their own motives and agenda. While the good intention people get wiped out very quickly. This is shown in one scene where one guy tries to save a girl hanging on a wire and ends up paying for it. But what makes this film work is that the overly selfish and angry banters works when it comes to the context and scenarios of the setting. And I did find it unique how it delved into status in society and how the poor is treated worse than dogs in Seoul. And how people show their real face depending on the circumstances and situation. To my surprise this animated movie wasn't as apocalyptic and chaotic as I expected. Instead I found it more subtle and plays out more like a drama. Since it's animated I thought Sang-ho Yeon would take advantage of it and would have put in a lot of chaotic effect which would have cost way more for a live action. One of the main disappointment comes from the animation, which looked very cheap. I am not a fan of cel shaded animation and it just appeared like they cut back a lot when it came to the animation. I think I saw better cel shaded animation on a PS2 during cut-scenes when it came to certain parts. Also if you are expecting some sort of connection between this and "Train to Busan" you won't be getting it. Overall, this is a depressing zombie movie that is a social commentary on society's injustice.5.8/10

Train to Busan is a hit now, and deservedly so. Although it is a zombie flick, it reaches deeper into the societal issues of corporate greed and class stratification, albeit in a way that is predictable and at times clichéd. Not so with Seoul Station - this animation delivers not only highly poignant commentary about class, poverty, social malaise, the ending is a whammy of a climax that is unexpected yet wraps up the narrative arc neatly without succumbing to familiar tactics.Unlike Train to Busan, it is Seoul itself (and its denizens) that is at the epicenter of the drama. Likewise, the characters are well fleshed out according to their role and societal stature. As a horror thriller, the zombies are up close, omnipresent and quite effective. The characters kept up a good pace, and are resourceful in adapting to the dangers they face with intelligent and believable methods.Like The King of Pigs and The Fake, Seoul Station belongs as much to the poignant social narrative as the zombie horror genre. It is a must-watch, and in my opinion, a superior film to Train to Busan.

A few years ago I saw the South Korean animated move The King of Pigs (2011). I was very impressed with this dark, compelling and adult work. The director of that one, Yeon Sang-Ho, has now released a new animated feature, which is a zombie film called Seoul Station. The story focuses on various small pockets of characters as they try to survive the zombie pandemic in different parts of their city. The characters are all disenfranchised members of South Korean society, such as the homeless and members of the sex trade. Therefore, like is so often the way with zombie movies, there is an underlying subtext to this one which looks at these social issues as well as the undead mayhem.Like The King of Pigs before it, Seoul Station is typified with an animation style that is not afraid to make its characters look like actual South Koreans, which is something that Japanese anime often avoids. It's a factor that adds a nice sense of authenticity to proceedings, with downtown Seoul itself presented in an equally realistic manner. The characterisation is also very strong, with a set of people here who you really root for. This fact means that we are more invested in their plight and so the various suspenseful scenes then have considerably more impact. This really is impressively tense for an animated movie with some moments that are genuinely pulse-pounding. It's also not afraid to pull its punches and has one effective dark unexpected turn in its story which only adds to the horror already witnessed. By the end, you would have to say that it's a pretty nihilistic movie which doesn't provide too many comforting answers. But it's all the better for not being afraid to execute its material this way. All-in-all, this is yet another very impressive animated work from Yeon Sang-Ho and a great example of that very rare beast, the animated horror movie.