You know me, I am a massive horror movie fan and have been since my early teens. I’ve seen everything from extreme gore flicks to subtle British ghost anthologies. All I’ve watched with pleasure and awe with what I was watching. And I don’t watch these films to suppress some psychotic need to unleash an evil inside me (maybe I am), I watch them because it’s awesome. And if you watch a lot of horror like I do, you begin to read horror films far more than an average cinema goer should. Trust me when trying to explain the importance of why Drag Me To Hell is more important than the average Marvel film, I know the odd looks I get and I am convinced they would find out for themselves.
However, whenever I try to explain the hidden meanings of horror stories to people I often reference Easter Cinema. Films from Korea or Japan have often lead me to want to do lectures on why these films have excelled in being successful films more than the average western equivalent. And no more is there a better example in all of this, is in the films Train To Busan and I Am A Hero. 2 of the greatest zombie related films I have watched in recent years. They have been much more entertaining to me to what mainstream zombie films have been advertised and forced down my throat to try and like them. And in order to understand why these Eastern Zombie films work so well, we first have to go back to where zombies were used in the first place.
In 1932 Victor Halperin released White Zombie. In the film the zombies were more of a foreground type of horror antagonist. Pretty much adding more to the horror of the situation that the main antagonist would bring to the story against our heroes. Everything in black magic and voodoo was used to explain where zombies came from and acted on. Although they became a staple for horror, they weren’t nearly as popular enough as Dracula and Frankenstein. Then 36 years later, an independent filmmaker would release a film that would change the world of zombies and horror cinema forever.
In 1968 George A Romero released Night Of The Living Dead. A horror film that showed zombies in a completely different light. Romero cornered onto the idea of making the Zombie’s a metaphor for a much worse horror that was happening in the world around them. Bringing about the worst in an unstructured society and thoughtless mobs attacking the unsuspecting. The Zombies were ultimately a means to an end of an even greater issue. This was something that Romero would do a lot in his zombie films. Using Zombies to bring out a worse kind of evil and highlight it for the audience’s attention. Night of the living dead is a horror film about Racism, Dawn of the Dead is about consumerism, capitalism and corruption. And Day of the Dead was a horror film about Facism taking over and abusing power towards the lower classes. This is why when people reference Romero’s Dead Trilogy, these horror films are a shining beacon of what was seen as the first horror films that people can take seriously again.
However, this was something a lot of people who were inspired by Romero forgot. Granted the zombie films in the late 80’s were fun and over the top, but they ultimately undermined the sole lesson of what Romero accomplished in the Dead Trilogy. The 90’s wasn’t the year for the zombie. It was more the decade of the Teenage slasher. But back in the 2000’s the horror zombie would be resurrected from the grave all over again for a new audience. But in a completely different angle.
In 2002, the film making genius that is Danny Boyle would make 28 Days Later. A post apocalyptic horror film involving a group of survivors trying to find safety against a diseased nation, who were infected by a chemical rage. This was a low budget film that did very well for general audiences and the film itself. Then a year later a co writer and director of a popular cult channel 4 sitcom exploded into cinema with a comedy film that invented a genre within itself. While riding on the coattails of an unsuspected remake of a horror classic.
2004 saw the release of the Dawn of the Dead Remake which was filmed and directed by Zack Snyder. Who was 14 years old when he made the film, or atleast that what it feels like when you watch the fucking film. (Zack Snyder is a really nice guy, so I feel bad making fun of him, so technically he wins). Followed immediately behind it was a comedy called Shaun of the Dead. The film that launched a genre called ZomCom (Zombie Comedy) Shaun of the Dead launched once again the zombie genre to brand new heights…And I hate it. Hot Fuzz is a better film but that’s an argument for another time.
In the time that followed these films, suddenly there was an influx of Zombie related TV shows, board and video games, clothing merch, advertisements, musicals and even a romantic zombie movies…Jesus Christ, kill that with fire first please. And ultimately it burned itself out. Once a genre of any kind starts to make large income it will be milked till the cows can’t be milked anymore. And the general public got bored….Fast! The zombie genre in films now is seen as the joke that it wasn’t intending to be. Romero’s later zombie films such as Land of the Dead, Diary Of the Dead and Survival of the Dead became nothing more but tumbleweeds in a barren desert.
And now we enter Eastern cinema.
The horror genre in Japan and Korea was being more interesting than its western counterpart. Releasing films that were more off the wall brilliant and not taking the similar easy routes that a majority of western cinema was producing. And in the recent years that past 2 zombie films would be released from the eastern cinema market, that brought back that love and passion to these films and most of all carried a metaphor that Romero intended with the zombie film genre…But from a different angle.
The 2 films Train To Busan and I Am A Hero are 2 zombie films involving large hordes of the undead attacking the living, while we as an audience follow a series of characters that we feel and care for throughout the entirety of the story. So what is the secret to these eastern Zombie films? Honestly it’s simple. The metaphor was shifted from the zombies…To the people.
Train To Busan follows a man trying to get his daughter home to his ex wife on a train, when out of the blue an outbreak of zombies attack the train causing chaos and horror on the journey. I Am A Hero follows a man trying to stay alive with him and his friends in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. That’s it’s story in its simplistic description, however what are the metaphors that are read when watching these films? Because ultimately that’s what makes these films work. Let’s have a deep look:
(I) Train To Busan: The Horror Of Vanity
Train to Busan follows a man who puts his career before his daughter, he’s split with his wife due to marital differences and his distance has pushed him and his daughters relationship to a fractured state. Through the 2 of them boarding a train and getting attacked by zombies, Our main character learns to drop his selfish traits, start helping others and be there for one another and most of all, being there for his daughter that he cares for and loves. He learns to reject the horror’s of his worst self through the zombies, who in there animalistic instinct crawl over other living dead bodies and crawling their way to attack the living first. Showing they have no remorse for the others that are like them and are only thinking straight forward for themselves. Everything our main character was without having to be a zombie to realise. You end up caring for him because you see him learn about the horrors of being selfish and how it leads to betrayal and unnecessary pain and suffering for those who don’t deserve it. This film excels at explaining how evil vanity and ego is without having to spell it out to a general audience.
(II) I Am A Hero: The Horror Of Cowardice
I Am A Hero follows Hideo. Which in translation means “Hero”. This is what our main character teaches us whenever his name is mentioned. The only thing about it, is that he isn’t really a hero. He’s shy, quiet, doesn’t really have much going for him. His main source of imagination of bravery comes from his gun he owns and poses with in his home. He is pushed to his limits when a horde of Zombies begin attacking him. Imagining every worse situation imaginable before finally taking the plunge for his only option, he learns to find bravery within himself to finally fend off the horror’s of cowardice and has one of the most satisfying endings in the history of cinema. We watch a character we start off having no hope in, suddenly having the greatest character arc and has us cheering for him throughout the whole final act. Because he learns and we learn that he is a hero.
Both these films have stood out more to me as mere zombie films. These are proper character driven stories where you have characters you love, hate, care for and are scared for. Which is more to say than any recent zombie film to come from western cinemas. Both these films are highly acknowledged and acclaimed by fans of horror and foriegn cinema alike, including myself. The secret to these films working so well isn’t down to the budget or visual effects or a crazy amount of extras for zombies. It comes down to the fundamental basics…A Zombie movie, that goes beyond a means to an end.
Zombies at the end of the day, have to serve a purpose to why these characters are going through the hell of enduring them, rather than just to be an obstacle to overcome. They have to, through the threat of the undead have to see something in themselves that they have to defeat. The zombies are a metaphor for what they are trying to conquer in themselves.
This is a metaphor that is almost touched upon in Western films but it hasn’t quite hit the mark. If it does or when it does, we should hopefully see a return to form for the genre and bring a new dose of life into the undead. Zombies are not cannon fodder for lazy action sequences where you have explosions and bullets at your disposal. Zombies are reminders for what is truly wrong with people and how to defeat it to look into ourselves.
This might be me reading too much into a genre, but take a look at the examples that I mentioned and hopefully you will see what i mean. In the meantime, if there is a shitty movie to be seen or a classic that has been neglected, you shall no doubt find me watching it and writing about it.