Cannes Film Festival 2016

Seoul Station

2016 • Horror, Drama, Animation • 92 minutes • 1,760 ratings • 361 reviews

Directed by Yeon Sang-Ho and Yeon Sang-ho

Starring Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-Kyung, Lee Joon, Kim Jae-rok and Jang Hyuk-Jin

Suk-gyu is desperately looking for his runaway daughter. He spares neither money nor effort and after a while his search leads to results. One of his contacts claims to have found the girl. But joy is replaced by shock when he finds out that she works as a prostitute in the center of Seoul. Suk-gyu decides to pose as a client to get close to his daughter. But just before the long awaited and dreaded reunion, panic breaks out at nearby Seoul Station. The place is very popular with the homeless of the Korean capital. And one of them, who had died during the day, comes alive again and start attacking and eating another misfortunate. The undead cannibal epidemic spreads like wildfire. The authorities hermetically close off the city center and decide to wait out the end of the outbreak, until there’s no one left…

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  • ★★★★ review by <Todd> on Letterboxd

    "If I had someplace to go, I wouldn't be at Seoul Station" - Homeless Guy

    DAILY HORROR SCAVENGER HUNT 2 (August 2018): boxd.it/1T4hU

    DAY THIRTY-ONE: "Anime is an underrated resource for horror movies. We are going to mine that resource to find an anime horror movie. (No American animation allowed!)"

    I had a hard time finding an anime feature horror film available and so without any further ado...ZOMBIES!!!!!!!!!!!! Can a man find his estranged daughter? What happens to the homeless? How will the government respond? Poorly right, that's what I thought. And that's about it, but it's awesome.

    The zombies are great in this. When they aren't stimulated by food they are slow and meandering (Night of the Living Dead style) but when they see food they movie quickly and in an animalistic manner (28 days later mixed with War for the Planet of the Apes). It was creepy and it was fun.

    As with any zombie story, what makes this particular movie is the people attempting to escape. The story of the father having to work with the man who is pimping out his daughter is perfect tension (would also work as a Purge film). The plot involving the daughter's journey is especially powerful given the group she started with and the only ones left at the end. The final 15 minutes of Seoul Station is such interesting film-making. Next stop...Train to Busan. Recommend.

    AUGUST 2018 DAILY HORROR SCAVENGER HUNT...it's been a pleasure, goodbye!

  • ★★★½ review by Dale Raulerson on Letterboxd

    Not the best animation, and it does feel overlong (possibly due to a very disjointed and slow paced start). However, there is plenty of action, tension and drama here, with an interesting cast of characters. I was also pretty surprised with one of the twists, which is a plus. Not quite as consistently engaging as Train to Busan itself, but not a bad companion piece by any means.

  • ★★★★ review by coles84 on Letterboxd

    Scavenger Hunt 34/Film 19/A film by a director in my Letterboxd top 4 films 

    TRAIN TO BUSAN blew me away. It was one of the greatest cinematic adventures of my 33 years and absorbed me start to finish sending my emotions in to overdrive and leaving me totally breathless. It eased its way in to my all time favourite films and I imagine it will stay there for most of my life. 

    To find out the director had an expanded vision in to the universe I fell head over heels in love with made this an exciting watch from the first seconds of pressing play. Sure this could have been a major disappointment but with Sang-ho Yeon involved I felt safe and knew I was going to find some magic in the film.

    It’s obviously vastly different visually as we are now in animation but the animation is beautiful and every effort has been put in place to make everything look crisp and tidy but most importantly it feels like I am looking at an animated real world, all the people have personality be it good or bad and the emotional punch from the first film is served here too. 

    I can’t rate it as high as the masterpiece TRAIN TO BUSAN but I can confirm I loved each minute and felt an emotional grip and tension throughout. 

    If you want to explore this world further then step right in but remember to come prepared for a rollercoaster ride that will tug on your heart.

  • ★★★★ review by Chico Fireman on Letterboxd

    Antes de comandar "Invasão Zumbi", o coreano Sang-ho Yeon dirigiu as animações "O Rei dos Porcos" e "The Fake", trabalhos com temática adulta. Para seu primeiro trabalho com atores de carne e osso, ele pegou emprestado muito da lógica de seus longas anteriores, mas teve que atenuar a violência gráfica ou não de algumas sequências. "Seoul Station" é um prequel animado de seu filme mais famoso. Mostra como a epidemia de zumbis chega à estação de onde parte o trem para Busan. Em seguida, encontra outros personagens e contra outras histórias a partir da mesma premissa. Em comparação, "Seoul Station" é mais cruel, impiedoso e violento com seus protagonistas. Sang-ho Yeon não tem pudores e levar sua histórias às últimas consequências. O traço é mais simples do que nossos olhos estão acostumados, mas a caracterização dos zumbis é muito boa e os limites de violência bem maiores.

  • ★★★½ review by Paul Talbot on Letterboxd

    A good enough prequel to the excellent Train To Busan, but I can't help but feel loses something with relatively low fame rate animation (the crowds of running zombies look fairly ropey in comparison the live action film, and that it loses some opportunity to deliver something that couldn't be done outside of the animated format. Well worth a watch, though.

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