Next up at 5:30 US CST is PENINSULA, the sequel to TRAIN TO BUSAN.
This is going to be a first-time watch for me, and I plan on getting verrry baked while I watch it, so I'll be interacting here less. ;)
Anyone interested can join me on my Discord server: https://discord.gg/ZWBTHb6HXg
You'll need a free Discord account. Let me know if you you're interested or have any questions/issues!
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OK, so... 🤯 PENINSULA (2020) is going to be a difficult thing to discuss summarily, in part because before we can even talk about it, we have to talk about its precursor, TRAIN TO BUSAN, to at least some extent. This is a prime example, (hey @MLClark!) of how the reframing of a situation completely shifts the story involved as well as how it is portrayed, ("its language" and use of visual/filmic methods). PENINSULA is pointedly *not,* just as its (admittedly muddled) title (cont)...
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concedes, a "sequel," so much as a reframing of the inciting situation from the "incident" that occurred in TRAIN to the much larger world that PENINSULA attempts to posit. This is, in many ways, more of a spiritual sequel to films like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) than to TRAIN, and with some of that expansion being made feels automatically unexpected, probably even unfamiliar. In fact, PENINSULA is something like: 1 part Resident Evil, 1 part Korean drama conventions, (cont. 2/X)..
#CoSoHorror (3/X)
another 1 part questionably animated vehicular stunt scenes, about 1/2 part each of a crime drama, an action thriller, and a hefty dash of characters and references to TRAIN... is essentially what makes up PENINSULA. So, it's kind of an odd duck, particularly, I suspect, for Western audiences. The hodgepodge of genres, while present in TRAIN feels much more scattered here. In fact the lack of a centrality of time, in PENINSULA might make it feel like a bit of a chore. (cont)...
#CoSoHorror (4/X)
This is to say, in more expedient terms, that PENINSULA comes across as something of a mess, especially when compared to its precursor. It actually reminds me more than a bit of Neil Marshall's DOOMSDAY (2008), not only due to the similar plot points, but it shares an overall dingy, sometimes unpleasant aesthetic along with humor that might feel a bit out-of-place, or kitschy.
And yet... there are also sequences that are beautifully shot and lit, some fine moments (cont.)...
#CoSoHorror (5/X)
of drama, and some of the best damn zombie parkour ever filmed. The fact that the tone comes across as so unsure is, I suspect, a direct result of the results of the film not meeting the scope that the filmmakers wanted to realize... It's an old and familiar cautionary tale, we think... Is it a failed experiment, then? A production disaster? I think it's kind of a flawed, but fascinating attempt to realize a world where, for one, children use day-glow RCAs to bait zombies(cont)
#CoSoHorror (7/7)
Thank you for reading my weedy-headed ramblings on a movie that everyone already saw last year. 😆
#CoSoHorror (6/7)
and every other candy-coated craziness Yeon Sang-ho could fit in... I think there is a great film with a tighter edit.. at 116 minutes it's definitely overlong, but it's also a pretty impressive display of "getting things done" because it hits so many different notes over 116 minutes... It's a hallmark of tearjerkers (which PENINSULA *is*) that you might feel a bit emotionally manipulated and drained by the end. Ummmm.... 4/5 bloody vials! 💉 💉 💉 💉 😆