Peninsula

Knowing that I was about to review the sequel to Train to Busan, I thought it only right to see the original. I did. I loved it. I cried like a baby. Rather than wait a few days, I excitedly jumped right into the sequel, Peninsula. Here’s what happened.

Train to Busan presents Peninsula, which opens just months after the events of the first film. The South Korean Zombie pandemic has made international news. The entire country has been locked down, and ironically, the only safe place in Korea is to the North (I wish they played into this more).

“The U.N. has stepped into the rescue by transporting refugees to neighboring countries…Korea is officially screwed!”

The U.N. has stepped into the rescue by transporting refugees to neighboring countries, but after an incident on a boat, the transports stopped. Korea is officially screwed! Four years later, a small group of lucky Korean refugees, who made it safely to Hong Kong, are now treated like outcasts. This particular group includes our main protagonist, Jung-Seok (Dong-Won Gang), and his buddies. They use their street-smarts to scam out a living.

The gang is soon approached by a Hong Kong mob boss, who hires them to retrieve a truck loaded with US$20 million in cash. Jung-Seok agrees and, of course, things don’t go so well for our gang of thieves.

First, Peninsula is a very different movie than Train to Busan. The first film took place primarily on a train and sets up the initial rules of the new zombie world. The zombies are fast, a bite will turn you into one of them, and they can’t see in the dark. The part I loved about the first film was the human stories—the sacrifices everyone made that allowed others to survive. Then one-by-one, they’re picked off, leaving you to wonder, “who will make it to the end?”