PENINSULA/TRAIN TO BUSAN: PENINSULA/ Busanhaeng 2: Bando

Japan, 2020, 116 minutes, Colour.

Koo Kyo-hwan, Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun.

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho.

There was great acclaim for the original film, Train to Busan, 2016, a thriller set on a train, a zombie film, a population threatened by the living dead, trapped on a train, victims of the zombies, and the authorities fighting to save the people.

This film has the same director and cowriter. However, the link is the rise of the zombies but none of the characters from the original film reappear. Once again, the atmosphere is created and attention given to the zombies and their attacks on the humans. However, the emphasis in this thriller is on the humans themselves, an opening where the hero is driving through the countryside with children, refusing to give help to any of those appealing along the way, saved but, after four years, not going to the Peninsula where they hoped for safety but rerouted to Hong Kong and a squalid existence, isolated ghettos of humans, the continued menace of the zombies.

The dramatic focus when the leader in the ghetto learns that there is a vast amount of American dollars back on the Korean mainland and a squad, including the hero, travel back to the Peninsula to recover the dollars. While they run the risk of the zombies, there is also the threat of the gangs on the mainland, rogue military leaders, many prisoners, and the setting up of a gladiatorial system where prisoners are exposed to the pursuing zombies, bets being made on who will survive.

The hero encounters the two girls, expert drivers, with devices for lighting up situations on ground drone situations. We meet their mother, the woman who was refused help along the way, the hero then feeling guilty, eventually confessing.

In the ensuing confrontations, the freeing of a friend, the rogue military man and his attack with his thugs, the leader of the Fort and his associate, recovering the money and wanting to escape, it is the woman who becomes the chief protagonist of the film, stepping into the role that would be expected to be taken by the man. An indication of changing patterns in action films at this time.

For fans, this was a continuation, an enjoyable action zombie film. It also suffered the fate of sequels where many bloggers felt incumbent on them to declare that it was not as good as the original.