Work
DIRECTOR
Prior to “Train to Busan (2016)”, Director and Screenwriter Yeong Sang-Ho was known for his award-winning animated films: “The King of Pigs (2011)”, and “The Fake (2013)”. Known for his melancholic, and sarcastic view on society, many of his works involved the integration of dark, controversial themes that perspicaciously explore human nature and social realism within the society. Yeong Sang-Ho faced many challenges and difficulties producing the film “Train to Busan” as it was his first live action film featuring real actors, but in return the film scored raving reviews, praises and many pushed for a sequel.
FILM BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Train to Busan is a two-hour long, action horror South Korean film released on July 20, 2016. This was one of the first South Korean blockbuster film in the “Zombie Apocalypse” sub-genre which was very unfamiliar to the Korean culture. Most Korean horror films typically do not involve with the apocalypse theme since typically in Korean culture, zombie films were related to the cult genre, while ghosts were the main theme in horror genre. Director Yeon does a very respectful job in producing a thrilling horror movie that contains a theme that were unfamiliar to Korean audiences. The unfamiliarity concept portrayed in the film was perceived positively as it recorded more than 11 million moviegoers in South Korea. The movie generated around a gross of $98.5 million in total with $80.5 million in South Korea, $2.2 million in United States and Canada, $15.8 million in other territories. It was the highest-grossing Korean film of the year in South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Train to Busan was awarded “Technical Award” on November 24, 2016, at Korean Association of Film Critics’ Awards, “Audience Choice Award for Most Popular Film” on November 25, 2016, at Blue Dragon Film Awards, “Best Foreign Language Film” at Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, and “Special Audience Award for Best Film” on May 24, 2017, at Chunsa Film Awards.
The film was made available on Rakuten Viki, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video streaming. The American distributor Well Go USA released the DVD and Blu-ray versions of Train to Busan on Jan 17, 2017. The FNC Add Cultures released the Korean DVD and Blue-ray versions of the film on February 22, 2017.