Seoul Train (2004) User Reviews

Heart-breaking

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 20 August 2008]

This is an incredibly sad and gut-wrenching documentary about refugees who have fled North Korea into China seeking eventual entry into South Korea or even to live in the less repressive dictatorship of China. The reason, by the way, that they don't go directly from North Korea to the South is that the Demilitarized Zone separates them and is bristling with mines and soldiers waiting to kill anyone who attempts.

The film interviews several who run an underground railroad of sorts that tries to smuggle these refugees into friendlier Mongolia or into the Japanese consulate. You also get to meet several of the families and your hearts go out to them. Sadly, almost every one of the ones you see are eventually caught and many are probably dead today since the Chinese policy is to repatriate them even if it means death--and even if this violates UN mandates that the Chinese government have agreed to follow! The callousness and indifference of the Chinese is shocking, though not surprising in light of Darfur and Tibet.

This is an exceptional but tough to watch film. It will very likely have you in tears watching these sad people who only want to be treated like valued human beings.

By the way, I also recommend "National Geographic Explorer: Inside North Korea" as it actually goes into the gulag-like North Korea and allows one of the only chances the West has to see what it's like to live within this nation. Both films are must-sees for any civilized and caring person.

What a cruel world we live in.

[lastliberal · 8/10 · 1 March 2007]

Steady streams of Mexican, Columbian, and Nicaraguan immigrants stream across the US borders every day looking for a better life. But, hundreds of Koreans escape North Korea into China every day just looking to survive and find their way to South Korea. Seoul Train tells the story of an underground railroad that tries to get these refugees into China and out to transportation that will get them to relatives in South Korea. They also try to get asylum for these refugees. It is a maddening and dangerous process made much more difficult by the Chinese who catch them and send them back, knowing they will be tortured or killed. Don't look for the US to help, as we just want to keep the cheap plastic crap flowing into our discount stores and really don't care about the Koreans. The story was magnificently done and painful to watch.

Life changing film

[CheshireCatsGrin · 8/10 · 3 May 2013]

I watched this in between Crossing The Line and National Geographic Explorer: Inside South Korea. Now I'm viewing Camp 41: Total Control Zone about life in one camps. I want to know more about the places these poor people went. In every interview I think of the North Koreans forced back by China.

I chose this film on another's recommendation in the users comments in Crossing and I'm not sorry I did. It is not, however, a film you want to go to sleep right after. Nothing is tied in a pretty bow. Just the opposite in fact. This film studies the North Koreans who escape across the border with China. China, fearing a refugee crisis, sends them back although the punishment is abusive at best, fatal very often as defecting is a capital offense in their home country.

As a consequence an Underground Railroad of sorts is run in China between it and Mongolia. This film follows two of the groups. One to Mongolia, another who attempts to defect via the Japanese consulate. Through the filmmaker we follow the results, as best we can. It's heart wrenching. I read on the message boards one IMDb member jointed Annesty International after viewing this and is active a number of years later. This is that kind of film. You will be changed in someway once you've seen it. Even if it is only to perk up your ears when North Korea is mentioned on the nightly news

great film

[nodoubt2221 · 10/10 · 22 October 2005]

This documentary was excellent, though it could have been better, it was the most organized and interesting document that has been created on behalf of the refugee system in North Korea (Children of the Secret State was even better). Jim Butterworth finally brought the topic of North Korean refugees to America and tried to make the invisible people visible. i can only hope that this film will help spread the word about the north Korean refugees who are ignored by the world, and by all states. even the American government and the UN ignores them. another excellent document was Children of the Secret State, which actually spoke with several refugees, showed the plight of the refugees in China, and showed even more rare North Korean footage. Seoul train could have given a more detailed account on the statistics and such, and could have talked about the starvation issue in North Korea and showed more of the suffering of those refugees in China.