By Kane Edmonds
No attempts at derailing the high intensity action in the south Korean zombie apocalypse follow up
3 STARS DIRECTOR: YEON SANG-HO DOP: LEE HYUNG-DEOK RUNTIME: 116 MINUTES RELEASE DATE: July, 2020
Apart from drawing the cynically comical similarities between Covid-19-ridden 2020 and the post-apocalyptic zombie infested and quarantined Korea, it’s full steam ahead in the next installment of cult zombie classic, Train To Busan, 2016. Returning to the franchise after directing superhero film Psychokinesis in 2018, Yeon Sang-ho is back to direct with a bigger story and a bigger budget.
Set four years after the initial events of its predecessor, Peninsula is not a continuation of the events in the first film, but instead a story set in the same universe. We follow ex-South Korean military captain Jung-Seok ,now residing in Hong Kong, and his team (if you can call a group of fellow desperate and lost drunkards being blackmailed a team) as they attempt to retrieve, and acquire their share of, the blinding sum of twenty million dollars from a van left in the now abandoned Korean Peninsula. And don’t worry, it’s not as easy as it sounds; rouge militia left behind on the island pose an equal threat to their survival as much as the ever-heavy-presence of zombies.
The sequel seemed a necessary step to take after the success of the first film and in many ways this film is very much capable of filling its boots. Peninsula does well to continue this universe without needing to pick up where we left off in Busan back in 2016, dropping us into a whole new timeframe and location as well as not so much a mention of the previous characters; does this speak to the success of the first film, that the audience is already well established and familiar with the world set out for us in Peninsula? I think so, there is a small effort to provide a context at the start of the movie but it’s safe to say the people behind Peninsula make the fair assumption we already know what went down. Peninsula is very much in the habit of borrowing aspects from the first installment that worked well. Such as character and relationship development, something so rare in the zombie genre, which we see play out between Jung-Seok and the family left behind on the island ,who save his life, as the film plays out. There’s also the consistency in the performance of people playing zombies, which, just as in the first film, have to be up there with some of the most genuinely terrifying and believable portrayals seen in zombie movies. Not to mention the daunting visuals of hundreds of zombies relentlessly piling atop one another creating bridges to otherwise unreachable places. And just as Train To Busan bore some comparisons to World War Z, you can’t help but notice something similar happening in Peninsula, paying homage to some of the most popular on screen post-apocalyptic worlds; the sheer scale of the harrowing lifelessness of the abandoned peninsula is reminiscent of I Am Legend, 2007, we see some of the nastier effects of being trapped in a world with zombies by way of the lawless militia, bearing similarities to AMC’s The Walking Dead and the chaotic, high intensity car chases has all the wrath, fuel and grit of Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015 (though the CGI was very distant in terms of quality).
But, as with most things in life, the beauty is limited. If nothing else Peninsula is guilty of clinging onto emotional moments far too long, which in turn shines a light on the obvious attempt to Americanise the sequel. Whilst I am aware that melodrama has a valid place in South-Korean cinema, if not timely then it cannot be effective. Take the climax of the film for example, in which (SPOILER ALERT) the UN respond to the SOS call of the family and dock their helicopter on the edge of the island, by this point the mother of the family has decided to sacrifice herself in order to save her children and Jung-Seok, queue emotional music, queue shot of mum gearing up to shoot herself in the abandoned truck whilst surrounded by all the zombies, queue shot of kids crying and screaming ‘No!’, queue back and forth of these two shots, queue flashback for Jung-Seok, queue back and forth between these three shots, queue flashback-induced revelation for Jung-Seok, queue Jung-Seok now making his way to save the mother, (all of this is taking place in slow motion by the way) que… you get the point. The attempted blend between classic South Korean melodrama and the excessive marking of the moment frequented in American action-dramas makes emotional moments far too lengthy and way too cheesy. This, paired with the introduction of an American character and consequently more moments speaking English, is an unnecessary attempt to Americanise this universe and ultimately is the root of its flaws.
By no means perfect, Peninsula is an exciting next step in this zombie infested Korean universe, bound to keep fans of the first satisfied whilst seeking status overseas, this is a franchise that shows no signs of slowing down.
‘Peninsula’ is available to rent/buy on Amazon Prime and VUDU
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