Much like a zombie outbreak, Train to Busan exploded onto unsuspecting audiences and quickly spread through the horror world. The 2016 film is a brilliant mixture of horrifying scares and well-crafted action.
Using a balanced cast and an unfamiliar backdrop, Train to Busan ignited fervor among audiences and critics. And it’s with Peninsula, director Sang-ho Yeon hopes to match the same intensity that turned horror fans into frenzied maniacs.
Picking up 4 years after the events of the first film, Peninsula takes us to Hong Kong. Because they couldn’t contain the spread, Korea has been abandoned.
Therefore, the government ships out its citizens in hopes they’ll find refuge in nearby countries. Onboard one of these ships is Jung Seok (Dong-Won Gang), a soldier just looking to get his sister and family out of the country.
However, while on route to Hong Kong, the ship becomes overrun with infected who kill Jung’s sister and son in the aftermath.
Wrapped with guilt, Jung lives out his days with his brother in law pulling small heists for the local gangs. Living in Hong Kong isn’t easy for refuges of Korea.
With the stigma of the virus, Jung and many others face prejudice from the local populace. A local gang leader presents an opportunity to Jung that’s tough to pass up.
The job: locate a lost amount of money in the streets of Korea.
Jung, with the help of his brother in law, returns to the ravaged island in hopes of starting again with the reward from locating the cash.
In addition to confronting the infected, Jung finds himself face to face with familiar faces and deadly new foes.
Coming into this movie, it’s important to understand that this is not Train to Busan. While Train to Busan is a horror film using action elements, Peninsula is an action film with moments of horror.
The mood of the film has reworked itself into a slow-paced, Mad Max-esque thriller. The intense character-driven drama that lifted the franchise to critical acclaim has been replaced by fast car chases and fiery gun battles.
By taking this different approach, Peninsula is able to separate itself from its predecessor.
Train to Busan grew in notoriety for using its action scenes as a way to build tension. Peninsula moves away from that formula by letting the action take precedent in the story.
Furthermore, the film sets its more ambitious scenes through the guise of night.
As seen in the final season of Game of Thrones, night action sets can be divisive in the message they are trying to get across. They are difficult to film and have to heavily rely on CGI.
Unfortunately, this direction makes it hard to grasp the full nature of what’s going on. Set 4 years from the initial outbreak, the new group of survivors show more of a resilience to their new world.
Because of his army training, Jung is better prepared for the horrors awaiting him while the survivors on the island use innovation in their approach to their new surroundings.
With multiple options at their disposal, the infected threat do not pose much of a threat to the survivors.
In Train to Busan, there is a concentrated effort to build a rapport with the characters. You understand their reasoning and eventual sacrifices.
In Peninsula, there’s little exposition given to understand their motivation. While it seems world-building is the focus, the audience ends up little sentimentality for the characters in their scenarios.
As seen over the course of the film, there is an effort to appeal to a wider audience. Through inclusions of English speaking scenes and moments of comedic relief, it’s obvious the film is trying to capitalize on its new fandom.
Catching lightning in a bottle is difficult. It’s even harder trying to do it twice. Although it’s unable to hit the same highs as the first film, Peninsula still delivers an actioned packed ride worth the price of admission.
Peninsula is now playing in theaters.
