
Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula. (15.)
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho.
Starring Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Kim Min-je, Koo Gyo-hwan, Kim Do-yoon and Lee Re. In cinemas. Korean with subtitles. 116 mins.
What's wrong with an old fashioned 2? (Or Train 2 Busan?) One film Presenting its follow up seems incredibly mealy-mouthed, but I suppose it's there to emphasise that this is not a direct follow up to the Korean swarming zombie classic. Set four years later, Peninsula has all new characters and takes place in Incheon. That Presents could also be there to communicate the arm's length being maintained between the pristine original and this dog of a follow-up.
Yeon Sang-ho has tried to swap genres, replacing horror for an Escape from New York type adventure in which survivors are shipped into zombieland Korea to steal $20 million. The problem is he's making a spectacular action romp, without the budget to pay for it. While Train looked like it was happening in the real world, Peninsula may as well be an animation. The blanket CGI drains away all the tension or excitement, robs it of any sense of taking place in what was once a city where people live.
But even with the money to realise his vision you doubt it'd be much good because the characters and plotting are so constantly, invasively annoying. None of the characters are like real people and all potentially intriguing situations are explored in the most brain dead way possible. On top of that, there is the sentimentality is truly gruesome and entirely gratuitous. You pity the zombies appearing in this.
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho.
Starring Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Kim Min-je, Koo Gyo-hwan, Kim Do-yoon and Lee Re. In cinemas. Korean with subtitles. 116 mins.
What's wrong with an old fashioned 2? (Or Train 2 Busan?) One film Presenting its follow up seems incredibly mealy-mouthed, but I suppose it's there to emphasise that this is not a direct follow up to the Korean swarming zombie classic. Set four years later, Peninsula has all new characters and takes place in Incheon. That Presents could also be there to communicate the arm's length being maintained between the pristine original and this dog of a follow-up.
Yeon Sang-ho has tried to swap genres, replacing horror for an Escape from New York type adventure in which survivors are shipped into zombieland Korea to steal $20 million. The problem is he's making a spectacular action romp, without the budget to pay for it. While Train looked like it was happening in the real world, Peninsula may as well be an animation. The blanket CGI drains away all the tension or excitement, robs it of any sense of taking place in what was once a city where people live.
But even with the money to realise his vision you doubt it'd be much good because the characters and plotting are so constantly, invasively annoying. None of the characters are like real people and all potentially intriguing situations are explored in the most brain dead way possible. On top of that, there is the sentimentality is truly gruesome and entirely gratuitous. You pity the zombies appearing in this.