'Peninsula': 5 things to know about the South Korean film

As 'Peninsula' gears up for its UAE release this weekend, we take a look at five ways the film is different than its predecessor

'Train To Busan: Peninsula' may be a good popcorn flick, but fans of the first film might be disappointed. Courtesy Well Go USA Entertainment

The Korean thriller Train to Busan took the world by storm when it rolled into cinemas in 2016. It managed to win over fans because of its unusual-for-genre focus on the human element within a zombie apocalypse.

It wasn’t just about clubbing the undead and trying to survive, but rather showed the nuances of self-sacrifice, betrayal and courage.

Now the film's writer-director Yeon Sang-ho is ready to show us the next episode of his apocalyptic story with Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula, which is set four years after the events of the first film.

Peninsula was initially set to show at the Cannes Film Festival in May. However, the festival was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic and the film's release was postponed.

It was theatrically released in South Korea last month, making more than $4 million (Dh14.6m) in the first two days of its release. But the rest of the world has still been waiting to catch up.

Now, as Peninsula gears up to hit theatres across the UAE this weekend, we talk you through five things to know about the film.

It's not a direct sequel

Despite its official English title referring to Train to Busan, the film isn't a direct sequel but rather a standalone film that takes place in the same zombie-infested universe as the 2016 zombie action thriller.

Peninsula features a new cast with little-to-no ties to the first film. So, if you're expecting to find out how the surviving characters in the original film are faring in this apocalyptic landscape, you might be disappointed.

There's a new composer

Jang Young-gyu's sombre piano and lush violins made a perfect heartfelt score for the first film. However, Peninsula now has a different composer at the helm.

Professionally known as Mowg, Lee Sung-hyun has composed the scores for more than three dozen films in the last decade, including the critically-acclaimed 2010 thriller I Saw The Devil and the 2011 drama The Crucible.

Mowg has raked in a number of awards for his compositions, including the award for Best Original Score at last year's Miami International Film Festival for Burning, and the award for Best Music at the 2016 Korean Association of Film Critics Awards for The Age of Shadows. So there's little doubt that we'll be getting a top-notch score for Peninsula.

There are guns

Part of what separated Train to Busan from other zombie thrillers was the fact that not a single gun was used throughout the film. Sure, we see them a number of times, particularly in the scenes with the undead military horde, but none of the guns ever actually fire.

Just from the trailer, you can see Peninsula is going to have lots and lots of firepower. This is partly due to how the focal point of the story is different.

In Train To Busan, our primary characters were civilians commuting between two Korean cities when the zombie outbreak occurred. But in the sequel our protagonist is a marine captain, who told to return to the quarantined area and retrieve bags of cash left in an abandoned food truck while trying to survive in a zombie-packed peninsula.

It has twice the budget

Train to Busan had a budget of $8.5m. Sure, it is a modest sum when compared to Hollywood projects but the film still managed to send burning trains and a horde of disjointed, milky-eyed zombies our way that seemed more realistic than in zombie flicks with three times that budget.

Gong Yoo stars in 'Train to Busan'. Courtesy Korean Cultural Center

It also raked in more than 10 times that sum at the box office. Banking on the success of the first film, Peninsula has a budget of $16m. It broke even within the first few days of its theatrical release in South Korea last month.

'Peninsula' broke records in South Korea

Even with a pandemic hindering its theatrical release, Peninsula broke a number of records when it hit cinemas in South Korea. In its opening day, it took in more than $2.4m from 2,338 screens, making it the most lucrative South Korean film of the year so far.

Peninsula went on to make $13.2m in its first five days in South Korea, so it's safe to say that when it comes out in the UAE, fans will have high expectations.