ANI-MOVIES, *Seoul Station

Being one of the few Korean animated movies to be recieve a release in the States, Seoul Station owes its initial success as being a loose prequel to the live-action Korean zombie film, Train To Busan. Being released in theatres merle weeks after the original movie, the animated prelude was directed by the same creator, Yeon Sang-ho simultaneously had both films in production for a near simultaneoue debut. This was followed up by a live-action sequel years later titled Pennisula, although like Seoul Station, all three installments aren't really direct follow-ups, but more seperate stories set in the same universe.

The movie begins with a homeless man at the main train station in Seoul having been bitten by an unseen attacker, from which he gets back up and starts spreading a zombie plague among the numerous homeless population. The main part of story deals with Hyu-San, a runaway prostitute now bunking up with her current boyfriend Ki-woong, whom she breaks up with after finding out he's been taking pictures of her sleeping to sell online. Suk-gyu, a man claiming to be Hyu-San's father tracks down Ki-woong when a detective locates her picture, and the two men spend a lengthy amount of time weeding through the zombie hordes to find her. Hyu-San meanwhile has to work her way around the fascist police who see everyone, living and walking dead alike, as being a hazard. She is finally reunited with Ki-yoong after finding refuge in a model home, but is shocked to find out that Suk-gyu is in reality her ex-pimp, who murders Ki-yoong, and spends a large amount of time stalking the showroom for Ki-yoong. The killer pimp spent all this effort chasing her down because she stole some money from him, but gets his just desserts as he's attacked by a now zombie-fied Ki-yoong. All this while the city of Seoul gets overrun with increasing numbers of living dead.

You can watch either Seoul Station or Train To Busan without needing to see the other as there is little carryover from one to the other. The animated movie is more of a study of how Korean society looks down on its homeless population, and how manically depressed your average blue collar Korean worker can get, even without the addition of a zombie apocalypse. Filmrise managed the American release, with it being currently available on DVD and Blu-Ray, along with most streaming services. The CGI-animated characters are better than average without taking away too much from the constantly shifting plot, although the "twist ending" might derail alot of gorehounds who wanted to see more of an animated zombie film instead of a character study of represserd Korean citizens.