Film Studies - Seoul Station [W1 Movie Review]

Seoul Station is a Korean animated movie written and directed by YEON SangHo. The story has involve two supporting character, a wounded old man and a kind homeless uncle in the beginning of the movie and three protagonist, Hye-Sun (The daughter), Ki-Woong (Hye-Sun's boyfriend) and Suk-Gyu (The father) after the outbreak. The movie does not made up story instead shows a real society scene happening around Seoul station which a young man has choose to disregard the wounded old man in the beginning when he discovered the old man is under a low social status.

Ki-Woong and Suk-Gyu have played as reversal character in the movie, my first impression about Ki-Woong is a cold-blooded teenager who does not care about how Hye-Sun feel. He has uploaded Hye-Sun’s photo for compensated dating purpose which against her will to earn money for the rent instead of himself quit clubbing and find a job. I was surprised that Ki-Woong will protect Hye-Sun when she was attacked by Suk-Gyu, even later he was injured but intend to stop Suk-Gyu chase after Hye-Sun. In the other way round, Suk-Gyu has appeared as worried father about her runaway daughter at first, but turns out as a pimp in the end. He killed Ki-Woong without mercy to eliminate eye witness when his real identity is exposed and attempt to rape Hye-Sun, but luckily Hye-Sun turned in the end. The role reversal let us know that we must not to judge a book by its cover.

I liked the part where a homeless uncle voice out bravely to warn the office workers to stub the cigarette butt before throw away, but due to his social status he was drive away by a cleaner and end up being despite by other office workers. This scene has show people will take action based on the person social status instead of the thing is right or wrong according to the situation. However, humanity is still exist among some character of the movie, the homeless uncle met the wounded old man and tried his best to save the old man's life even the old man does not have any relationship with him.

I was very curious at a scene which one of a tenant live next door to Hye-Sun and Ki-Woong being bitten by the landlady. How did the landlady got infected? When and where did she got infected? This scene was like a insert purposely to show all around the Seoul station has been surrounded by infected but Ki-Woong and Suk-Gyu doesn't encounter any zombies before they enter the flat. The movie does not explain clearly how the landlady got infected since the only infected source shown is through bitten by the zombie and not by any other sources such as water or wind, so I guess the possibility that the landlady got bitten was when she watering flowers.

Another curious scene is when the officer, Hye-Sun and two homeless lock up themselves in the cell, the officer wasn't bitten before he rushed into the cell, but he has wounded on his right upper arm after he entered the cell. This scene has made me watched more than twice as if I may have skip the scene he got bitten before he entered the cell but I can't find any of it.

As a big fan of zombie theme movie, I think this is an average movie. One of the reason is because the movie focused too long how the outbreak started, they should focused more on the story of three protagonist instead telling the beginning of the outbreak. Another reason is lack of professional while using background music to drive the atmosphere. As example, overcast music is used instead of tension music in the scene where Ki-Woong was chased by the zombies at the alley, this make audience does not feel the tension that the character experiencing by trying to escape from the zombies. The movie's character has also tried to imitate real person action but still looks stiff and have unnatural facial expression like a robot.

In my opinion, the message that the movie have gave me is zombie may be the horrible creature on the surface, but living person is more creepier. Because we know the zombie will bite human for sure but we did not know the living person will stand on the same side of divide or make a choice to push you into hoard of zombies for their life sake. I have also learn that not every story will lead to a good ending but it may be the best ending for the story character.