Seoul Station (2016)

After I watched Train to Busan, I learnt that a prequel was released less than a moment later, a prequel that was made before but not released as the studios feared it would be a disaster. That prequel is Seoul Station (Korean: 서울역 Seoulyeok), an animated film that should supposedly tell us how the pandemic started. But that's the problem with Seoul Station, it never explains us anything. 

Taking place in and around Seoul Station, the film follows several groups of people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse that unleashed in the city and the government trying to lockdown people. 

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, the plot doesn't give us any answers, absolutely no explanation for the outbreak is offered. We still don't know how the pandemic started, we just know when and where it started. Which is why the film fails completely as a prequel. 

As a standalone film, Seoul Station is barely decent. Just like Train to Busan, it is driven by a father-and-daughter relationship, only this one is way darker and takes a disturbing, upsetting twist, and it isn't as effective as it was in Train to Busan. The very simple plot is interesting at first but after a while, I lost interest.

The characters don't make it any easier to enjoy the film. This time we only get the people at the lower rung of the social ladder such as members of the sex trade, and the homeless. They have a nice characterization and yet I never found them that compelling and I didn't care for any of them.

Finecut

The zombie attacks also aren't as good and effective as they were in Train to Busan. Actually, most of them lack tension, and there isn't even a memorable sequence.

The animation isn't that good either. It looks very cheap and ugly to be honest, like some old PS2 video game, but at least the characters look like actual Korean people.