Korean zombie blockbuster grabs global recognition
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"Train to Busan" poster
By Ko Dong-hwan
“Train to Busan,” Korea’s first zombie blockbuster flick, has clinched a big international award ― top prize at the 20th Fantasia International Film Festival.
The action thriller, a directorial debut by Yeon Sang-ho starring Korean A-listers Gong Yoo and Don Lee, won the Cheval Noir trophy for best feature in the festival that wrapped up on Wednesday in Montreal.
The film debuted in the Out of Competition category at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Film studios including Fox, Sony and some in Europe tried to nail remake rights to the movie that recorded two sold-out screenings at Fantasia, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Mitch Davis, co-director of Fantasia, was quoted by the report as saying the film “created quite a buzz among buyers.”
“When we heard Fox, Sony and others were circling the property for a potential remake, we were not surprised,” Davis said, according to the report. “It is a phenomenal piece of art.”
The film portrays Seok-wu (Gong Yoo) and his daughter (Kim Soo-ahn) finding out on a train to Korea’s southern port city of Busan that there has been a zombie outbreak. He teams with several passengers and strives to survive the apocalyptic predicament.
“Train to Busan” has attracted invitations from many international film festivals, including the Melbourne International Film Festival, which is on now, and the Sitges Film Festival in October in Spain.
Fantasia, founded in 1996 and held annually since, invites genre films and thus attracts hardcore genre film fans and North American film distributors. It has been dubbed by some as “the most outstanding and largest genre film festival in North America.”