International Cinema Comparison

     In order to compare differences between US made films and international films, we screened “World War Z”, a film from the US, and “Train to Busan”, a film from South Korea. Both films explore survival, fear, and crisis within the theme of a widespread infection that turns people into undead creatures after humans. There are very different cultural values and emotional tones in these two films. 

    In the film “World War Z”, it is very clear to us that it is in fact an American film. The plot consists of a main hero, who we know will not be killed, that is the only person who could save the day. The main character, Gerry, played by Brad Pitt, is responsible to be the hero across the world when an infection breaks out. Family is explored in this movie in the beginning, we are introduced to Gerry’s family but only for a little, making it difficult to build a connection and love for the characters. Gerry chooses to keep his family safe but going to help fight against this infection. This film also explores the idea of fight or flight, and also everyone against themselves in a way. This film is primarily shot with a mix of handheld and steady shots in order to give us a sense of urgency. The handheld shots give us a shaky immersive feel that make us feel like we are in the action. As for editing there are a lot of quick cuts between locations and characters to build tension and keep the story moving. This film leans more towards a polished feel rather than grounded, mostly because of the big budget production values. In this film it is more global, as they are traveling internationally to stop the spread of this infection from other places, while trying to find a cure. It is mainly centered in the US, but they do travel to other places, making this film more global than “Train to Busan”. The emotional theme that seems to drive this film the most, is Gerry wanting to be the hero to his family, and everyone around him who is counting in him, there isn’t a whole lot of sacrifice in this film, because like I’ve said it is centered on one hero who we know is not to be killed off. 

    In the film “Train to Busan” the issues of family are definitely explored, in the beginning it is the struggles of a father who is never very present to his daughter, and the daughter who wishes she was with her mother and wishes she was payed more attention to by her father. Throughout the film different families are explored, and the love thy share especially when saying goodbye in an intense scene. Like “World War Z”, there are moments where the camera shots make us feel, like we are involved in the action, but there are also slowly paced sentimental moments that bring out emotion in the audience. Unlike “World War Z”, there are a lot of moments in this film that allow us to really connect with the characters, and have emotion and fear when they are in danger.There is not one main character in “Train to Busan”, but many, there are different people introduced to us throughout the film that feel important and play a big role. There is a lot of build up of characters and emotions throughout the film that make for the ending where only two of these characters survive very sad, especially with all of the sacrifices that happen. This film is definitely more local, it is set in South Korea, which is where we stay in the entire film, just different cities that we don’t see much of as we are on the train with them as the outbreak is spreading. It feels more grounded as it is set on one train moving to the city of Busan. We are definitely grounded in local culture, as everyone speaks in what I’m assuming was Korean. The character development of this film was a very big detail in my opinion, Gong Yoo starts off very self centered, only caring about himself and his daughter, but after his daughter is shown to be a very out going person and informs her father of his selfishness he begins to go to defend everyone around him from this infection and ends up sacrificing himself for his child and another woman. There are a lot of important sentimental sacrifices in this film , which builds a lot of emotions. 

    Between these two films, the one the resonated with me more was “Train to Busan”, just because of the emotional build up and the connections it allows us to build with the characters. The connections are very hard to build in  “Wolrd War Z”, but I still thought that film was pretty good… just not as good as it could have been. I learned that the US film industry tends to circle on one main hero and happy endings, whereas international films tend to give us a sad unpredictable ending. “Train to Busan” definitely surprised me as I am not used to watching all the characters in a film die like this. But I was pleasantly surprised for sure. I think both films show us survival of a situation that is definitely very scary ahere you can’t trust anyone as they may be end up to be infected.


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