SEOUL STATION

SEOUL STATION

Synopsis

This movie starts when an infected old man came to the city of Seoul and spread the virus to the citizen after he turned into a zombie. Other than the exciting zombie outbreak, this movie also tells the journey of a man, Suk-gyu looking for his daughter, Hye-Sun, who run away from home and involved in prostitution (tvtropes, n.d.). When Suk-gyu realized that, he went to find Hye-Sun’s boyfriend, Ki-woong who pimped her out online to gain his earnings. Then, both of them went on a perilous adventure to look for Hye-Sun in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. On the other hand, Hye-Sun experienced a lot of terrible incidences while she was escaping from the zombie attack. At the end of this movie, Hye-Sun could finally reunite with Ki-woong but she was shocked when she realized that the man who was looking for her was not her actual father, but it was actually Suk-gyu who used to harass her in the past. Ki-woong tried to protect Hye-Sun but he ended up being killed by Suk-gyu. Suk-gyu tried to rape Hye-Sun but he turned out bitten by Hye-Sun when she was fully infected by a zombie who scratched her leg before she met Suk-gyu and Ki-woong.

Reviews

In this movie, there are a few scenes worth to be commended. I personally like the scene when Hye-Sun and some civilians ran into the police station after being chased by a bunch of zombies on the street. In this scene, we can clearly see the inequality of social status. The group of people who was running with Hye-Sun was actually the homeless people who lived around the Seoul station, which they belonged to low-status citizen. When they were trying to get help from the police officers, who obviously belonged to citizen from a higher social status than those homeless people, the police officers rejected to help and eventually chased them out from the police station. This scene had portrayed the contemptuousness of people from higher social status towards those who belong to the lower social status.

Next, I like the scene of Hye-Sun and the middle-aged homeless guy being chased by a crazy people. After both of them were successfully escaped from the ambulance which was going to the hospital that had been conquered by zombies, they ran into a closed subway station. When they were trying to break into it, they saw a strange lady far away from them. That lady started to run towards them crazily when she noticed both of them. It was relieved that the crazy person was actually an ordinary person because they thought that she was actually a zombie. Though this scene didn’t contribute much to the whole storyline but it was really exciting to watch. I felt really nervous when watching that crazy person ran toward Hye-Sun and the homeless guy. This scene had applied a really good mise-en-shot to bring out the excitement of the audiences. For instance, several cutscenes were repeatedly applied in this scene when showing the struggle of Hye-Sun and the homeless guy trying to pass through the roller shutter at the train station and also the crazy lady running toward them.

Furthermore, the scene of Hye-Sun and the citizen being trapped in the quarantine gave a great impact towards my feeling. One end of the quarantine was a bunch of zombies trying to break into the quarantine, while the other end of it was blocked by the police. When the citizen tried to pass through it, they were either being pushed back or being shot to death. Besides, the police had even attacked the people inside the quarantine without mercy even though they were not infected. This scene had strongly portrayed the inhumanity of people. Though one of the ends of the quarantine was threatening zombies and the other one was the people who meant to protect the citizen but both sides seemed no difference because they were still threatening for the people and regardless which side the people go, it was still unsafe.

Moreover, the setting of the scene when Hye-Sun crossed the bar between buildings when she was running away from the zombies after they broke into the quarantine is actually good when creating an exciting emotion. The first reason to make this scene interesting was the design of the so-called “bridge” that Hye-Sun was crossing over. Instead of using a safe and normal bridge that is easy to cross, a bar with the very narrow path was used so that audiences can feel tension when she was crossing it. Secondly, the camera was placed at a lower angle to show the danger of the zombies chasing after Hye-Sun from her back. This angle could bring out the feeling of danger is trying to engulf Hye-Sun when the zombies were jumping down from a place higher than Hye-Sun from that point of view.

Conversely, there is also a scene which I dislike in the entire movie, which is the scene of Suk-gyu and Ki-woong at the hospital. While Suk-gyu was still inside the hospital, a zombie outside the hospital attempted to attack Ki-woong in the car. What was wrong with that scene was the behavior or the “acting” of the zombie. The zombie was actually looking at the seatbelt that tangled his arm and he eventually freed himself like a normal human being before he continued to attack Ki-woong. Furthermore, the zombie seemed like he knows how to think and when to stop attacking. He actually stopped chasing Ki-woong and Suk-gyu when their car was driving far away from the zombie. In my opinion, a zombie is a creature that never makes cognitive thinking. It will be hilarious if a zombie knows how to think, or maybe planning a strategy before it hunts for its preys.  

Reference

Tvtropes. (n.d.). Animation / Seoul Station. Retrieved from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki. php/Animation/SeoulStation?from=Film.SeoulStation.