Seoul Station

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Yeon Sang-ho directs. Jang Young-gyu scores. Yeon Sang-ho cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in South Korea. Dialogue in Korean.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 10 years ago.
• 2Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 3Original score by Jang Young-gyu. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 4Editor Yeon Sang-ho shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Ryu Seung-ryong and Shim Eun-kyung and Lee Joon carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "It all started here.".
• 7IMDB entry: tt3845670 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Original score

Jang Young-gyu

Editing

Yeon Sang-ho

Runtime

92 min · 1h 32m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Box office

$2,021,735

Original language

KO

IMDB

Seoul Station (2016) ↗

Also by

Yeon Sang-ho

• 
  Colony

  2026 · ★ 8.1
• 
  Train to Busan

  2016 · ★ 7.8
• 
  Parasyte: The Grey

  2024 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Hellbound

  2021 · ★ 7.3
• 
  Love Is Protein

  2008 · ★ 7.0
• 
  The Ugly

  2025 · ★ 6.9

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  US Trailer 2 [Subtitled]

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Official UK Trailer [Subtitled]

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  US Trailer [Subtitled]

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2017-04-14
  ★ 7/10

  Not your ordinary night adventure in Seoul. I have mentioned in my review for 'Train to Busan' that it has a prequel, but an anime. This is it, this is the one from the same director. Releasing them in a short time apart has advantages, as well as disadvantages. Like comparison is unavoidable, yet being different format is a big excuse. But both the films going have its fans backing. This is not a high standard anime, but acceptable due to the quality of the narration. Yes the story was good. Like the live-action film, there are many unexpected thing happens. Particularly, you cannot trust anyone in this kind of survival game. It was a slow opening, followed by picking up the pace once the chaos was unleashed and then ended with a nice twist. Once you watch this, you might say it could have made a decent live- action. I thought the same. Prequel or sequel, not bad at all, though it can't be compared to the original. Everything was a one night event, but not entire film takes place at Seoul Station. It all begins there, yet this film as well fail to detail on the source. Like from where it all started. Apart from that, quite an enjoyable anime with a few great tense moments. Like any ordinary day, the Seoul Station was calmly shutting down for the day at near midnight. But for the homeless people, it is a roof over their head. One of them discovers that his brother got injured badly, so he seeks help from the authorities nearby. On the other side of the tale, a father who finally discovered his runaway daughter staying with a young man. So the two rides together to find her who went out. Soon they all come to know the people are behaving weirdly. And after realising the serious threat of it, its now running for life. But would they successfully track down what they're looking for is revealed in the final segment. "If I had a place to go, I would not have stayed at Seoul Station." After watching a very satisfying live-action zombie film, and after learning about this one, I was looking forward to this day. A well made film, particularly after an average initiation, how it developed and ended was excellent. Most of you would enjoy the second half better. Overall, it has a good runtime and the interesting characters. The voice-over looked fine. Since I didn't understand the language, it was not a big deal. Though the visual, I mean the sketches should have been a little better. In some parts, you will know that they used digital backgrounds, perhaps from 3D to 2D, particularly in the running scenes where you won't notice enough. So there should be some negatives and for me it was the connection between these two titles. The two films' timeline overlaps. I mean the final section of this and the opening parts of the other film. Since it took place in the night time, most of the people were not aware of what's going on in the streets. As a daybreak follows, more people on the street, big chaos and we know what happened afterwards, especially from the train passengers' perspective. Like I mentioned earlier, not knowing the origins of this sudden outbreak is the disappointment after watching both the films. You might have heard that 'Train to Busan' is set to remake in Hollywood. If you haven't watched that, you should do now and following, this one too. Because of the connection, yet not compulsory as these films do not share much detail. It was just like 'Cloverfield' and '10 Cloverfield Lane'. Keeping update is worth suppose in the future any follow-up film are made. I liked this one, but a little lesser than the original. The other major difference is, watching the zombies (attack) in anime version is a different experience. Maybe you can say less frightening, those who are easy prey for such film. Anyway, worthy film. I would particularly suggest it to those who saw the previous film. 7/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• ST

  Studio Dadashow

  KR

• 

  Next Entertainment World

  KR

• 

  Myung Films

  KR

• 

  Finecut

  KR

Key crew

• EditorYeon Sang-ho
• ProducerSuh Young-joo
• EditorLee Yeon-jeong
• ProducerLee Dong-ha
• ProducerYeon Sang-ho

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• prequel
• zombie
• adult animation
• seoul, south korea

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2016-04-05· Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival

Also known as

International titles

• Seoul StationBR
• 尸杀前传CN
• 서울역KR
• Seoul StationUS