Peninsula Review: Yeon Sang Ho's Train to Busan sequel is swamped with rousing action but where's the emotion?

Peninsula

Peninsula Cast: Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Kim Do-yoon, Lee Re, Lee Ye-won

Peninsula Director: Yeon Sang-ho

Peninsula Stars: 2.5/5

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached its penultimate stage early in 2020, Steven Soderbergh's 2011 thriller Contagion became the most streamed movie at the time, with reasonable credibility. Peninsula, which is the sequel (of sorts but not really as none of the original surviving characters return) to the cult zombie movie Train to Busan, couldn't have come at a much better time with the world still reeling with the effects of coronavirus. But, did Peninsula live up to its revered predecessor? Let's find out!

Yeon Sang-ho's 2016 film thrived in not just it's claustrophobic setting inside a train, it also tapped into human emotions at its most brutal which left you numb much after the ending credits rolled. This time around, Peninsula covers a much larger geographical distance of a war-torn South Korea, four years after the deadly zombie outbreak in Train to Busan. The key player is Jung-seok (Gang Dong-won), who is a recluse in Hong Kong, overwhelmed with guilt over not saving a mother and her daughter when he first fleed from the outbreak. He's accompanied by his brother-in-law Chul-min (Kim Do-yoon) as the two live with the sorrow of the former's sister and nephew being infected by the zombies, leading to their imminent deaths.

Being treated like rodents in Hong Kong with the racism factor hitting straight home in real-time, Jung-seok and Chul-min take on the mission to extract USD 20 million from an abandoned truck inside the quarantined peninsula with the promise of getting half the money, along with two other comrades. When the characters exclaim how easy their mission is going to be, well, all hell breaks loose. This time around, too, zombies aren't the main villains but more like sidekicks. Instead, it's humans themselves who continue to be greedy, selfish and downright brutal with no structure or laws in place to stop them. Reminiscent of a world like William Golding's barbaric Lord of the Flies, we see the utter chaos that takes place where humans are more dangerous than zombies.

It's spectacularly seen through rogue militia Unit 631 co-led by the ghastly Sergeant Hwang (Kim Min-jae) and depressed Captain Seo (Koo Kyo-hwan), who preside over an underground fight club where humans fight zombies to derive enjoyment through violence. As Jung-seok and Chul-min eventually separate, the former is saved by two rebellious young girls Jooni (Lee Re) and Yu-jin (Lee Ye-won) and along with their mother Min-jung (Lee Jung-hyun) and grandfather Elder Kim (Kwon Hae-hyo), they head out on an adventure to flee South Korea.

While Peninsula doesn't bring anything different to the zombie genre, it's intricate set-pieces, at times, truly look outstanding to watch on the big screen. Then again, the CGI is so overused, you feel like you're in a video game. Nonetheless, there's plenty of rousing action for thrill-seekers to sink their teeth into as the Mad Max action meets Escape from New York's setting meets Fast & Furious cars chases meets Fight Club inspired battle sequences in the post-apocalyptic movie. It's especially during the car chases that director Yeon Sang-ho shines the brightest with that fierce edge of complete abandon.

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Peninsula director Yeon Sang Ho: I imagined what Korea would look like after Train to Busan

However, where is the emotion? What made Train to Busan such an extraordinary watch was how invested you were in all the characters, their backstories, their relationships and eventually doomed fates. In Peninsula, while there were certain here-there instances, you are never given a chance to feel absolutely anything for the characters. That's not to say the cast didn't do a good job! Dong-won, with a limited character sketch, manages to let his guilt show in spades while Lee Re and Ye-won add the much-needed fire with their badass demeanours (using a colourful remote control car to divert zombies was especially entertaining!). Even Jung-hyun plays the war-torn mother with only her daughters' safety in mind with an earnest approach. Yet, it's the scrambled attempt at a storyline that majorly fails as Sang-ho shows us that he's more dominant when the setting is more confined, say inside a moving train. A sequel to masterpieces must never be made, they say. Peninsula, unfortunately, is a primary example as to why. No matter how much how a cash cow it promises to be.

Bottom line is that if you're looking for a no-brainer, edge of your seat entertainer, then Peninsula could definitely pass as a one-time-watch. However, we'd rather recommend you rewatch Train To Busan instead!