Last Train To Busan.
116 Mins. Starring: Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun & Lee Re. Director: Yeon Sang-ho.
All aboard with the horde! Like a Netflix remake of Bong Joon-ho's 'Snowpiercer', you may think a sequel to 'Train To Busan' is about as necessary as going out for anything other than milk right now. But following the amazing animated 'Seoul Station' prequel and in the year of 'Parasite', the peak of 'Peninsula' locked down at home may just be the movie of our quarantined times. "Is he infected" someone says in Seoul, keeping his distance in fear. There's a virus taking over the world...and I could be writing about this films plot or what's going on all around us right now. This s### is straight scary. Sure there's no trains this time like after midnight, but this cinematic classic franchise still gives you everything it's got, carriage by carriage. Just like when from 'World War Z' to the 'Kingdom' of a South Korean Netflix series they changed the genre of the zombie movie game. Outbreak confining it to the claustrophobic chills of cabs on a train (and you thought 'Snakes On A Plane' was bad). So much so this fanboy in Korea this time last year even got a 'Train To Busan' from 'Seoul Station' of all geeked out places on vacation. Neeeeeeerd! But now 'Train To Busan Presents...' 'I Am Legend', 'Mad Max', 'Escape From New York' and any other genre blend this eyes bulging and horde screaming series can get its stretched out veiny hands on. But from Hong Kong to a South Korean capital that's lost its soul, no movie as mad as this one carries a strain of metaphor that isn't as palpably real and on the pulse quite like what this taps into.
Running with your youngest in your arms like a homage to the outstanding original that broke ground, this one boots on the concrete pays all due respect and offers a different take on another epidemic that actually has a haunting hold on South Korea and many of its young actors and K-Pop stars. Making of an iconic, inspired moment of heroism as the curtain calls like chopper blades. We haven't seen a stand this final and this formidable since Thor, Chris Hemsworth's Netflix 'Extraction' with those Avenging Russo's. After the brilliant 'Busan' and the sobering 'Station', we saw no need for a punctuated 'Peninsula' with its kitchen sink trailer. We weren't convinced. Turns out we were wrong again in this age of negativity as the trailer couldn't do this superb sequel that's just trying to tell and continue this story in a post-apocalyptic different way justice. The machine gunning action clip for clip is amazing. Whilst the as usual, on point social commentary is utterly compelling and critical to the ignorant, mask debate times we live in now that are no longer bliss. As a matter of fact the millions of zombies serve as a plot device backdrop to the subversive subplots of our own human sickness in society. As painted in blood red, cattle numbered prisoners take turns in a 'Gladiator' like death match, caged arena. Locked inside were an abhorrent amalgamation of zombies looking like something out of 'The Thing' look to bite turn them like what we do in the shadows into their next feast. Whether for sport or profit, this game megaphone plays into our combative bloodlust and corrupt blood money as cruelty is made to rain like won where the rich wins and the poor strains to survive in this dank, damp lair of puddles turning red. All in a world where we're all trying to make it like a levelled up verison of the video game, 'The Last Of Us', but can't continue like 9...8...
Emotion always marks Korean cinema far more potent and powerfully in its subtlety than Hollywood's hallmark tropes. And this 'Peninsula' movie moves you in such a way you always knew was going to be more than blood and guts, but body and soul. Heart too. From the brutal beginnings that still show the beautiful maternal instincts of a mother's love, to the epic ending in all its evoking emotions. This thanks to returning from 'Busan', 'Psychokinesis' director Yeon Sang-ho and a cast that knows smart blockbusters are more than big bluster, but sensibilities too. As the 'Temptation Of Wolves' lead Gang Dong-won let's loose like his hair when promised a $20 million dollar payday at the 'Peninsula'. But even that many Benjamin's couldn't convince him out of his guilt after what he leaves behind twice over in this movies first act with his as a soldier. Now a merc for hire this man will really face his own demons aswell as the ones that walk with the dead before he makes port at Incheon. And if he doesn't, tossing him a machine gun, the "queen of transformation" and Korean music star Lee Jung-hyun will have something to say about that. As the South Korean 'Split' (not the James McAvoy 'Unbreakable' sequel before the 'Glass' smash) actress sings with one of her highest notes of performance. And then there's the 'Hope' of rising child star Lee Re who in tears that will tempt yours is quite possibly one of the youngest and best actors we have in the world. If you don't begin to well up when she does then this year really has taken it out of you. Because in this movie with a landscape like a heart of stone there's still a soul that stirs between the echos of those who roar like a car alarm when they smell blood or fear. This one senses our deepest and darkest ones and instead of offering us a straight forward horror (or another shot taking look at the world as we now know it), this one holds out a hand. One we should take even if we can't shake in a year that has rocked us to the core. Time to heal and catch a train back to the station. Off the rails there's more that surrounds this peninsula we call home. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Train To Busan', 'Seoul Station', 'Snowpiercer (2013)'.
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