Review: Why Korean film 'Peninsula' lumbers rather than races behind 'Train to Busan'

Spoilers ahead: If it's entertainment you're after, there's plenty to find ... but hardcore fans of the first film may be left wanting by this subpar follow-up

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

Spoiler alert: this review contains plot giveaways

The zombie infestation is sweeping across South Korea and survivors are scuffling to catch the last boats leaving the country. We are in the car with Marine captain Jung-seok as he drives his sister, brother-in-law and nephew towards the port.

A family stops the car as it lurches forward in traffic, begging for help. “At least take the girl,” the woman pleads, trying to get her crying daughter into the car. The captain refuses and everyone in the car tries to keep looking ahead. All except the captain’s nephew, who stares anxiously at the despairing family on the other side of the window. Finally, the traffic parts and the captain drives off, leaving the family to a horrific fate.

The car falls into an uncomfortable silence as the captain and his family wrestle with their guilt. The focus is on Jung-seok. The remorse is evident on his face. At this point, my expectations for Peninsula are high. The first few minutes of the film are on point, parallel to what made the previous instalment, Train to Busan, so compelling.

Peninsula might just meet that mark, I think. Aboard a refugee ship, a zombie infection begins to spread. Soon, the captain's nephew is infected and the boy's mother refuses to leave him. Everyone else around them is on the ground, slowly turning to the undead (which seems to go against the lightning-quick zombie transformations in the first film).

Then comes a scene that sweep-kicks my expectations to the floor.

We’re taken to a talk show in America. It's an exposition to basically explain to us that four years have passed since the zombie outbreak started in South Korea and that countries had quarantined Korea as a whole (known now as the Peninsula) and are not letting anyone in or out.

It is a cringe-inducing scene. The talk show host seems like she’s about to break into a fit of giggles. Her guest, a scientist, seems like he’s doing his utmost not to look at the camera and wave to his mother. “Four years have passed,” the host says. “Yes,” her guest replies, nodding, smiling with a mannequin-like expression. “Four years.”

We then jump to Hong Kong, where the guilt-ridden captain and his brother-in-law, Chul-min, are barely making ends meet. Refugees from the Peninsula have become social pariahs, as everyone seems to think they are on the verge of transforming into flesh-hungry monsters.

Soon, the two men are taken in by a gang, whose leader tasks them with sneaking back into Korea to retrieve $20 million (Dh73.4m) from an abandoned food truck. He promises to split the cash with them. They are told that the coast guard’s been bribed and going back into the quarantined country won't be a problem.

Once in Korea, the action starts to pick up. Peninsula builds and peels suspense differently than the first film, and that is largely due to the amount of firepower. Part of what separated Train to Busan from other zombie thrillers was the fact that not a single gun was fired throughout the film. Sure, we see them a number of times, but none of the guns ever got used.

In Peninsula, there are lots and lots of guns. This is understandable, of course. The first film unpacks the initial moments of the virus's outbreak. It catches everyone by surprise. In the second film, we're treading in an apocalyptic wasteland that was once a bustling Incheon. Still, the most interesting moments of the film are the ones where characters kill zombies with other methods.

As the captain and his team explore the upended and demolished city at night, keeping quiet to avoid rousing the zombies, they are suddenly confronted by the rogue militia group Unit 631.

While Chul-min is taken hostage, Jung-seok is rescued by two sisters: Joon, who drives the car out of the scene, and her younger sister Yu-jin.

This is arguably one of the most fun bits of the film as Joon runs over hordes of zombies, drifting with an expertise that would make the Fast and Furious cast blush.

After this, there is a plot reveal that I won't spoil, but – with some effort, patience and a lot of tolerance for overspent dramatic license – you do reach a point where you realise that while the film bears the Train to Busan name, that's where the similarities between the two films end. They take place in the same zombie-infested universe, that's about it.

If you’re expecting to find out how the surviving characters in the original film are faring in this apocalyptic landscape, you will be disappointed. If you’re expecting a stylistically similar film, you will be disappointed.

However, if you just want to go through a bucket of popcorn while watching a zombie film that – although at times staggers and lumbers like the monsters it features – can be a fun, action-filled thriller, you just might enjoy yourself.