Every film or movie will at least falls into one or more genres. First of all, what is genre? Genre is the grouping of film types. Though most of the scholars agreed that no genre can be defined in a single hard-and-fast way (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010), but the best approach to categorize films was proposed by Rick Altman, which is a semantic/syntactic approach.
Theory Discussion
Semantic approach consists a list of common traits and attitudes, characters, shows, locations, sets, etc. It brings very much of the visual aspects of the film. It can be equalized as Mise-en-scene which includes lighting, actors' behavior, makeup and so on. Syntactic approach is a constitutive relationships between undesignated and variable placeholders. It brings very much the thematic aspects of the film. Syntactic can be known as theme as well, which is derived from the narrative of the film. There are various types of genres such as horror, comedy, action, sci-fi and etc.
Synopsis
Train to Busan has its own genres too. It is mainly belongs to the genre of "horror". This film is about zombie apocalypse due to the leakage of hazardous chemical from plants which were invested by the main character, Seok-woo's company. It can be categorize in the subgenre of "unnatural" as it consists of creature like zombies. The story began when Seok-woo promised to travel with his daughter, Su-an to meet his divorced spouse at Busan. When they got into the train, there were some of the casts such as a pair of elderly sisters, a pair of spouse, an obnoxious businessman and a baseball team (Tallerico, 2016, para.3). As the infected lady transformed into a zombie and bit the innocent conductor, this was when the zombie outbreak began. Audience would get to enjoy how passengers in the train struggled to survive the catastrophic event and to reach the safeguarded Busan Station.
Analysis
According to Riggio, R.E. (2014), the elements that make an horror movie scary including fear of death, anticipation, crawly things, scary places and etc. There are some scenes that fulfilled these criteria in the film.
First of all, the scene that reflected fear of death happened when passengers in the 13th coach rejected Seok-woo, the pregnant woman's husband and the male baseball player from staying with them. This is because they had crossed many zombies to meet up with their families, and they might already be bitten by the zombies. Hence, the obnoxious businessman took the lead to chase them off to another coach. Due to fear of death, the passengers followed his lead and urged them to be quarantined. Everyone looked exhausted, doubtful, worried and emotional at the same time. This scene showed that people are vulnerable and selfish in front of anything that might threaten their well-being.
As Seok-woo assumed that they were safe at Daejeon station, unfortunately all of the army were infected. As Seok-woo turned around, he saw thta there was an infected army who was approaching his daughter. As Seok-woo was running towards his daughter and trying to save her, everything was in slow-motion. This scene induced a sense of suspense, which is creating anticipation whether Su-an will sacrifice in front of her father or not. Just in time, the pregnant woman's husband appeared to knock out the zombie. Seok-woo then learnt a lesson that helping others in crucial times is very important, as he should not educate his daughter to be selfish in a hard time like this.
There was a scene when the pretty train conductor got bitten by the infected lady and transformed into a creepy crawler. This is one of the scene that displayed "crawly things" that boosting audiences' sense of fear. Besides, the train was once a tranquil place that no one would ever expect to have been packed with zombies. In the twinkle of an eye, the normal setting of a train turned into a scary place that would leave a traumatic memory in the audiences' mind.
Except for being an horror film, Train to Busan can also be known as an action film. There were many scenes where the casts were fighting with the zombies. For example, as Seok-woo, the pregnant woman's husband and the baseball player were crossing the coaches, they were well-prepared and fought the zombies. The baseball player used the baseball baseball bat, Seok-woo used a shield and the husband used his fists as weapon.
Other than having "action" as one of its genre, "comedy" genre could be found in this film as well. For example, there was a scene when Seok-woo, his daughter and the ragged clothing guy went on another route to escape the zombies. As the ragged clothing guy saw a normal-looking army, he rushed towards him and asked for help. Just in time, a zombie appeared out of nowhere and attacked the army. The ragged clothing guy fall in an exaggerating manner. According to Lindsay Pietroluongo (2017), this was one of the element called "slapstick" in comedy genre.
Conclusion
Train to Busan could be known as the best zombie film of all times. It shows that people from different social classes and life cycle are all vulnerable in front of inevitable disasters. The film also manages to create genuine emotional tension amidst the flesh-eating chaos (Shotwell, 2016, para.5). Despite zombies being the focus throughout the film, the selfishness portrayed by Seok-woo and the businessman is in fact the main concern. Zombies might seem to be dreadful and threatening, but after all, man's greediness is the catalyst towards this unprecedented tragedy.
Reference
1. Bordwell, D & Thompson, K (2010). Film Art An Introduction, 9th edition., USA: McGraw-Hill.
2. Pietroluongo, L (2017). Five major elements of comedy movie. Retrieved from:
https://ourpastimes.com/five-major-elements-of-comedy-movies-12511523.html
3. Riggio, R.E. (2014). The top ten things that make horror movie scary. Retrieved from:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201410/the-top-ten-things-make-horror-movies-scary
4. Shotwell, J (2016). 'Train to Busan is the best zombie film in years. Retrieved from:
https://substreammagazine.com/2016/08/train-to-busan-review/
5. Tallerico, B (2016). Train to Busan review. Retrieved from:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/train-to-busan-2016
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