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Train to Busan 2: Peninsula (2020)

Train to Busan 2: Peninsula (2020)

&NewLine;<p><strong><em>The follow-up to everyone’s favorite tear-jerker zombie movie has proven that the makers of Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula are more interested in chasing tropes than telling worthwhile stories&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The original <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;23&sol;review-train-to-busan-&percnt;EB&percnt;B6&percnt;80&percnt;EC&percnt;82&percnt;B0&percnt;ED&percnt;96&percnt;89-2016&sol;"><em>Train to Busan<&sol;em><&sol;a> was met with wide critical acclaim&comma; but I failed to see the appeal&period; The film has a great premise&colon; a zombie outbreak taking place on a high-speed train&period; However&comma; its story goes in a bland&comma; overly sentimental direction&period; In essence&comma; it is just a low-quality <em>Snowpiercer<&sol;em> &lpar;2013&rpar; with zombies&period; In <em>Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula<&sol;em>&comma; the same writer&sol;director&sol;producer team return to offer up an even worse rip-off&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The second installment takes place shortly after the events of the original film&period; None of the same actors or characters return&comma; but I never found myself missing them&period; Our story begins with a family trying to reach a nearby ship to leave the zombie-infested peninsula &lpar;South Korea&rpar;&period; Space is limited and thousands of people clamber to make it on the ship&period; During the ensuing chaos&comma; our protagonist&comma; Chul-Min &lpar;Do-Yoon Kim&rpar;&comma; heads to the ship with his wife&comma; their young son&comma; and Chul-Min’s brother-in-law&comma; Captain Jung-Seok &lpar;Gang Dong-Won&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Onboard the ship&comma; one of the injured passengers turns into a zombie&period; Subsequently&comma; he infects several others in the tiny medical bay&comma; including Chul-Min’s son&period; The mother refuses to leave her son&comma; even as he and others transform into zombies around her&period; Jung-Seok must seal off the medical bay as Chul-Min watches his wife and son turn into the undead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>When word travels to Hong Kong about a truck containing &dollar;20 million USD&comma; the local mob boss contracts a team of mercenaries to retrieve it&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Four years later&comma; Chul-Min and Jung-Seok live in squalor in the underworld of Hong Kong&period; Due to their ethnicity&comma; they are shunned by the locals&period; Nobody wants to deal with people from the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;peninsula&comma;” as they could still carry the virus&period; As a result&comma; the pair have gone into a life of crime to sustain themselves&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;05&sol;ZOQNDLQNIBGMDFDUWY5YM4RS5I-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"South Korea zombie movie" class&equals;"wp-image-2265"&sol;><figcaption><em>Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula <&sol;em>&lpar;2020&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>When word travels to Hong Kong about a truck near the South Korean port containing &dollar;20 million USD&comma; the local mob boss contracts Chul-Min&comma; Jung-Seok&comma; and a team of mercenaries to sail to South Korea&comma; obtain the funds&comma; and return&period; Naturally&comma; things don’t go exactly as planned when they arrive&period; As it turns out&comma; zombies do not pose the only threat on the South Korean peninsula&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The basic premise of <em>Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula<&sol;em> isn’t altogether original&period; It borrows heavily from films like <em>Escape from New York<&sol;em> &lpar;1981&rpar;&period; However&comma; the film verges on copyright infringement in the second act&period; The team’s first encounter with the truck does not end well&period; Rather than a quick &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;grab-and-go” job&comma; they find themselves stranded amid a sea of zombies and a post-apocalyptic compound of survivors&period; At this point&comma; the film blatantly steals from <em>Mad Max&colon; Fury Road<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;&period; Unfortunately&comma; <em>Train to Busan 2<&sol;em> doesn’t have the budget to support the same kind of high-octane thrill ride&period; As a result&comma; we just have a less than impressive copycat that lacks any sense of originality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>The script makes frequent use of English&comma; despite the fact that many of the actors clearly do not speak the language&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Many of <em>Peninsula<&sol;em>’s faults would be forgivable if it didn’t follow the same missteps as the first film&period; The filmmakers really want to push the importance of the family unit&period; However&comma; the execution makes the movie feel grimy&comma; in spite of the ostensibly conservative themes&period; More specifically&comma; director Yeon Sang-Ho seems obsessed with showing little girls crying ad nauseam&comma; which is questionable enough in its own right&period; When viewed in this light&comma; both <em>Train to Busan<&sol;em> and <em>Train to Busan 2<&sol;em> lose much of their &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;wholesome” appeal&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;05&sol;train-to-busan-2-peninsula-2020-05-1024x494&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Train to Busan 2" class&equals;"wp-image-2266"&sol;><figcaption><em>Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Even if you ignore the blatant visual and narrative ripoffs and the unseemly use of children&comma; the film is deadset on taking advantage of every Hollywood cliche in the book&period; Yes&comma; <em>Peninsula<&sol;em> is a South Korean film made outside of the Hollywood system&comma; but it tries its best to emulate a Hollywood film in every way possible&period; The script makes frequent use of English&comma; despite the fact that many of the actors clearly do not speak the language&period; This results in dialogue that is both unnecessary and difficult to understand&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula constantly chases after tropes and cliches that do not result in a cohesive narrative&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This isn’t a repudiation of the Korean&comma; Chinese&comma; and Hong Kongese actors&comma; either&period; The English-speaking segments that feature Western actors are some of the most unwatchable parts of the whole film&period; It seems as though the casting director just wanted to go with locals or low-cost actors&period; I genuinely believe they went to the nearest schools in search of English teachers to fill the roles&period; While I can overlook some of the bad acting done by Asian actors&comma; it’s much harder to look at English-speaking &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;actors” who have no ability to convey real emotion or get into their characters&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Finally&comma; <em>Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula<&sol;em> constantly chases after tropes and cliches that do not result in a cohesive narrative&period; The film ties up the loose ends&comma; but it has to use insane mental gymnastics just to get there&period; The finale alone requires several unbelievable coincidences just to make sense&period; Consequently&comma; the film will likely prove too ridiculous for even the most diehard fans of the genre&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In short&comma; <em>Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula<&sol;em> may have a few moments of quality zombie-filled action&comma; but its shortcomings make this a poor second showing in an already mediocre franchise&period; If you want to watch martial arts zombies and CGI hordes sprinting after vehicles&comma; then maybe <em>Peninsula<&sol;em> will work for you&period; Unfortunately&comma; for most viewers&comma; this sequel showcases the absolute worst that the zombie genre has to offer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula &lpar;2020&rpar; Movie Rating&colon; &starf; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>Train to Busan 2&colon; Peninsula<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar;&comma; the film is currently available to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B08KL38V98&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B08KL38V98&amp&semi;linkId&equals;238097327d3f1054622ac29654b7a01d">rent or purchase via Amazon<&sol;a>&period; You can also stream the movie for <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;shudder&period;com&sol;">free on Shudder<&sol;a>&period; Finally&comma; if you’d like to read more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film<&sol;a> homepage&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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