Peninsula keeps zombie apocalypse genre fresh – Boston Herald

MOVIE REVIEW

TRAIN TO BUSAN PRESENTS: PENINSULA

Not rated. At the Seaport Showplace Icon Boston.

Grade: B+

Peninsula or Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula, which is a weird mouthful of a title a sequel to the 2016 South Korean apocalyptic, zombie-movie blockbuster Train to Busan arrives and asks the question: Are you ready for the Zombie Thunderdome? Or should I say the Zombie Fury Road?

Once again directed and co-written by Sang-ho Yeon, whose 2016 animated film Seoul Station is a prequel to Train to Busan, Peninsula picks up when a family in a car are too traumatized to stop for another family, whose car is broken down in the road. They are on their way to a ship from Incheon Port to flee the zombie pandemic. Four years later in Hong Kong, where they are treated like members of the underclass, the driver of the car, Marine Capt. Jung Seok (Dong-Won Gang), and his widowed brother-in-law agree to return to zombie-overrun Incheon and nearby infested capital Seoul to find a truck on the Omok Bridge full of U.S. cash and return it for half the contents.

Youd think that the zombie genre was played out given how many iterations we have had in the past decade. But in the hands of someone like Yeon, whose influences range from John Carpenter (Escape from New York) to George Miller (yes, Mad Max: Fury Road), it is the horror gift that just keeps giving. Yes, it strains credulity that Jung Seok is reunited with the family he abandoned, minus the husband, in Seoul, where his team is almost immediately wiped out by roving bands of zombies, who are blind at night, but are attracted to and can be controlled by noise and light. Min Jung (Korean pop star Jung-hyun Lee), the mother of two young girls, has turned warrior princess since last seen. She and her aging father try to protect the children. Elder daughter Yu-jin (Ye-Won Lee) has become expert at riding around a devastated Seoul in an SUV sending zombies flying or crushing them under her wheels. In fact, the film features almost as many car chases as zombie attacks.

The cute younger daughter, Jooni (Re Lee), uses a remote-controlled toy car to baffle the undead. An army depot in the port from which Min-jung escaped with her family has seen its leadership descend into madness. The commander, Capt. Seo (Koo Kyo-wan), is a drunk. His rival for top dog is Sgt. Hwang (Min-Jae Kim), a sadistic murderer. Captive stragglers are sent into the Arena where they are fed to zombies a la the Colosseum. The zombies in the Busan series move fast, unlike the ones in The Walking Dead. Occasionally, the filmmaker uses CGI to suggest nightmarish World War Z-like torrents of them, adding to the films entertaining, if also derivative vibe.

Editing by Academy Award-nominated Jinmo Yang (Parasite) keeps Peninsula moving. The score by Mowg (Burning) can be a bit overwhelming. Dont ask me why we get so many English-language dialogue scenes complete with English subtitles. As a writer, Yeon likes to spin your head with reversals. Just when things look hopeless, they are not. Its fun to play along, although the drawn-out conclusion doesnt make a lot of sense, and at 116 minutes Peninsula threatens to wear out its welcome.

(Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula contains extreme graphic violence and gruesome images.)

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Peninsula keeps zombie apocalypse genre fresh - Boston Herald

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero