The combination of Korea and zombies doesn't automatically mean non-stop thrill-a-minute undead action like Train to Busan. Zombie For Sale takes a fair while to get going: like one of Romero's classic ghouls, it shuffles along at a rather leisurely pace at first, focussing on the activities and relationships of a boondock family, the Parks, who operate a garage, scamming travellers by causing blow-outs and then charging a fortune to fix their vehicles.
After a zombie-like young man, an escapee 'guinea pig' from a nearby pharmaceutical company, wanders onto the Parks' premises and bites the elderly father, the family discovers a new means of income: the boy's bite causes rejuvenation, and pretty soon all of the old men in the town are lining up, happy to pay cash to be bitten on the arm. Unfortunately, the positive effects of the young man's bite eventually wear off, the old men turning into ravenous zombies, and it's not long before the whole area is over-run by the undead.
The film's quirky family dynamic is akin to something like Parasite or Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris, and might prove a little too offbeat for many zombie movie fans. I found my mind wandering when the film's first zombie took more interest in munching cabbages than brains, but I stuck with it and was glad I did, the film morphing into a likeable Warm Bodies style rom-zom-com (the daughter, Hae-Gul, falling for Jjong-Bi, as the zombie is named) before finally delivering the action in the final act, as the Parks come under siege, trapped in their garage by hordes of flesh-eaters.
There's not much gore to speak of, and, at 112 minutes, the film does go on for a bit too long (some of that cabbage chomping could definitely have been cut!), but overall this is an entertaining and unexpectedly different take on the genre, and if the ending doesn't make you smile, then you're probably already dead.
6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.
