TRAIN to BUSAN Presents: PENINSULA (2020) (Well Go USA Blu-ray Review)

TRAIN to BUSAN Presents: 

PENINSULA (2020) 

Label: Well Go USA
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 116 Minutes 
Audio: Korean Dolby Atmos, TrueHD 7.1, English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Cast: Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Kwon Hae-hyo, Kim Min-je, Koo Gyo-hwan, Kim Do-yoon, Lee Re and Lee Ye-won

The sequel to Train To Busan (2016) takes place four years after that film with South Korean having been overrun with the infected and the whole country now a restricted zone. A former South Korean soldier named Jung-seok and his brother-in law Chul-min are survivors and are now living as refugees in Hong Kong. It's there that they are recruited by a criminal organization to illegally enter South Korea and retrieve millions of dollars in American cash that is trapped inside a cargo truck in the port city of Incheon Port.  As part of a group of rag-tag mercenary team Jung-seok and Chul-min arrive at the port city by boat under the cover of darkness to retrieve the cash, but of course something goes wrong and the entire group find themselves on the shit end of the stick in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max with zombies survival thriller, which plays out along the lines of familiar stuff like George A. Romero's Day of the Dead and John Carpenter's Escape From New York. 

The sequel, the third in the series counting the animated prequel Seoul Station (2016), broadens the scope of the established world while deadening some of the character development and emotional impact that made Train To Busan such engaging and kinetic bit of zombie survival fun. We still get loads of fast-moving zombie action and violence, including some ridiculous Fast and the Furious by way of Mad Max car-chase carnage, and a shit-ton of digital special effects, but overall the was a bit long in the tooth for me at nearly two-hours, but it is fast-paced, stylish and fun so it has a lot going for it. 

Stuff I didn't care for that much would be that there were are a few too many characters for me to keep track with several factions of survivors that have split off into different tribal groups, including a group of sadistic ex-military who are holed-up on a mall Dawn of the Dead style who get off by forcing people they have taken prisoner to combat zombies in what amounts to a steel-cage match for sport. The action is great but the digital effects look terrible in my opinion, the movie looks like cutscenes from a third-rate video game, but the design of the overgrown cityscapes are pretty great, the rendering just doesn't mesh well with the live-action stuff. There also a lack of depth to the characters that fails to connect me to the protagonists but the film does have some epic hero moments that tug at the heartstrings a bit, but not enough to make me care about most of the characters or their  fates, but I did enjoy the baddies militaristic leader who had definite echoes of the venomous Capt. Rhodes from Romero's Day of the Dead.

Audio/Video: Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula (2020) arrives on Blu-ray from Well Go USA in 1080p HD framed in the original 2.35:1 widescreen. The image looks solid, the high contrast and stylized color-grading of the flick does decent work marrying the mediums but with all that digital stuff there's a lot of rubbery looking undead, vehicles and backdrops. That said the colors are punchy when called upon but the source elements are inconsistent and there is black crush that smothers shadow detail.  

Audio on the disc comes by way of Korean Dolby Atmos, which defaults to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 if you are not Atmos-enabled, plus an English-dub presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround. The Atmos licks some major butt, we gets lots of bombast with  wall-rumbling low-end, and the action gets plenty of surround action.  Very pleased to see this Blu-ray get a Dolby Atmos upgrade, I do wish more studios would include it as an option when they have created one for their 4K UHD counterparts they also should include it on the Blu-ray as well. 

Extras come by way of about nine minutes of interviews with the director and principle cast, plus a theatrical a teaser trailer for the film. The 2-disc Blu-ray and DVD combo release arrives in a dual hub keepcase with a single sided sleeve of artwork and an embossed slipcover with raised lettering on the cover and spine, inside the discs have separate artwork. 

Special Features:
- Making-Of and Cast and Crew Interviews: Making The Sequel (2 min) HD, Making The Action (3 min) HD,  Making of The Director (1 min) HD, Making of Characters (3 min) HD

- Trailer (2 min) 

- Teaser Trailer (2 min) 

- Well Go USA Trailers: Possessor (2 min), Deliver Us From Evil (2 min), Synchronic (2 min) 

Peninsula (2020) is fun watch on it's own but the characters are not as enjoyable not do the emotions don't run as deep as it's predecessor, and those the bad-digital effects were annoying. I would have preferred a more direct and less digital effects heavy flick but I still had a fun time watching this one, a solid entry, but an inferior sequel. 

More screenshots from the Well Go USA Blu-ray: 

Extras: