Analyzing Zombie Culture in The Postmodern Society: Train To Busan

 From comedic zombie movie such as “Shaun of The Dead” until the social critique movie such as Romero’s series of “Dawn of The Dead”, zombie has been a very important entity in representing the postmodern society. According to the writers of “Zombies and Western Culture”, zombies enact the crisis of meaning emerged in the postmodern society. The disconnection from personal, social, and cultural life, as well as the appearance of raging consumerist society which is identical to the postmodern society shapes this meaningless life for people living in postmodernist society. They come in packs but at the same time they are astray, unable to connect and communicate with each other, exactly like how zombies are depicted. It can’t be denied that even though postmodernism is a backlash to modernism, the effect of modernism remains strong in the society, becoming an urgent issue that the postmodernists want to address through architecture, literature, and this time, movies to gain attention and empathy from the mass.

 One of the legendary movies about zombies that hits as a blockbuster in South Korea and caught the attention of worldwide audience is “Train to Busan” (2016). The movie tells the story in a unique way about the situation of Korean consumerist and capitalist society, with the ones who are economically and socially privileged at the top of the hierarchy and the labors paid with a minimum wage situated in the rock bottom of the society. The concept of the movie is a very brilliant idea to begin with, using train a symbolism of “mobility” which is very crucial in the fast paced society of South Korea. I also perceive the moving train as the symbolism of the process of how people in the postmodern society slowly transform into a zombie, as well as a representation of the communal space in which people from different backgrounds and different “destination” coexist, where the inequality of social standing sometimes creates clash between the groups.

The main characters who have significant impact in the movie are representing different classes in the Korean postmodern society; The young (Yongguk and Jinhee), the rich workaholic man (Seokwoo), the greedy chairman (Yonsuk), the working class (Sungkyung and Sanghwa), and the innocent child (Suan). Everyone in that train may have a completely different background, but they all are striving to escape from the zombie apocalypse. However, one does not simply do that, especially when there is a power dynamic where the ones with privilege always call the shots and prioritize themselves over others. For instance, Yonsuk, the bus COO, is obsessed with saving his own life. In the movie, not only does he belittle Jinhee, one of the passengers who is younger than him, but he also undermines the PTSD homeless man by saying “if you don’t study well, you will end up like him.” to Suan, Seokwoo’s daughter. Furthermore, without pity, he commands the train crew to forbid survivors from other carriage to take refuge in the same carriage where he is, blinded by the fear of getting infected and his own ego.

Meanwhile, Seokwoo, the rich and successful fund manager who fails to provide care for his daughter due to the unending goal he set for himself, represents the individualist and blase attitude in postmodern society, being detached from everyone else and only cares about himself. While other people have to go through a quarantine period once they arrive at the destination, he tried to bribe his acquaintance who has the capability to let him pass the requirement easily. His daughter found out this despicable action and determined to tell the others about his father’s plan, but Seokwoo prohibited her from doing so. With all her might, Suan brought her father into realization that he is too caught up with his ego that it transforms him into an ignorant person by saying the iconic line “you only care about yourself”.

 Little did they know that their attitude lead them to their own downfall, as in the end they both are devoured by the zombies. Yonsuk and Seokwoo stem from the same root, but Seokwoo eventually got to realize how much his daughter means to him in the last minutes of his life and took his chance to help people survive from the zombie apocalypse-whereas Yonsuk passed away in vain. From them, we can grasp the idea that zombies are not only victims of corporate greed, but also victims of one’s own ego. Them being devoured by the zombie is the symbolism of their ego slowly eating them up, transforming them into someone who does not have compassion to others as what we often find in the postmodern society. Meanwhile the weak, whose life is being sacrificed (to the zombies) for the safety of the privileged, represents people who conform to the social expectation and who obey the ones who hold authority with no other choice to begin with, transforming them into a soulless body. They are surviving, but not living, exactly like the zombies.