Film Review: PENINSULA (2020): Monsters, Mercs, and Mayhem Entertain and Disappoint

Peninsula Review

Peninsula (2020) Film Review, a movie directed by Sang-ho Yeon, and starring Do-yoon Kim, Dong-won Gang, Gyo-hwan Koo, Hae-hyo Kwon, Jung-hyun Lee, Min-Jae Kim, Re Lee, and Ye-Won Lee.

Sang-ho Yeon’s original Train to Busan was excellent: a simple relatable premise of survival that tests who really has moral courage in a heart pounding life or death situation. When push comes to shove, only a few use what power they have to protect the weak, while others will hurl them to their deaths to escape. On the other hand, Peninsula doesn’t really try to shed light on human nature so much as it tries to present a fun monster story in a post-apocalyptic world full of mercenaries, rouges, and warlords. It starts off this way with a band of down on their luck mercs finding creative new ways to kill zombie hordes in pursuit of a lost treasure. But it slowly gets more and more boring, sliding into the mold of a generic sci-fi action flick.

One of the funnest parts of post-apocalyptic fiction is seeing how the survivors use their creativity to adapt to their hostile new environment without the aid of modern technology and infrastructure. And the key sign of a good action flick is when the characters come up with innovative new ways to fight their enemies rather than just shooting them with a big gun. Peninsula gives us both of these elements, which kept me entertained for a while with great moments like when a pair of young scavengers use a flashy toy car to yank the zombies around like moths drawn to the bug zapper. I also enjoyed the scenes where they splatter zombies while careening their armored SUV down the highway at breakneck speed even though the cars were gratuitously CG in those shots, making them look a lot like a video game cut scenes. That being said, I started getting pretty bored in the third act, which has a lot of shooting and car chases without any of the ingenuity from before. It gave me the impression of executive meddling, as I know Yeon Sang-ho is a talented director from how well he did with the original Train to Busan. So I have a hard time believing that the schlocky finale was really a part of his creative vision and not the result of anxious studio execs shoehorning in the kind of mindless action sequence that polls well with test audiences.

One thing that bothers me about both Peninsula and Train to Busan is how Yeon uses them to glorify such needless martyrdom, which is something I just can’t get behind philosophically. Sure it makes sense when he negatively portrays the bastards who will throw their friends under the bus to save themselves, as he did with the villain in Train to Busan. But I find it a bit disturbing when he glorifies people who allow themselves to be killed even when it saves no one. In both films, there are scenes where a grieving character allows them self to be gruesomely mauled by zombies after a loved one dies in front of them or where a character kills them self in a needlessly painful and flashy way. So it’s clear to me that Yeon is using suicide to make a statement; that in a world full of callous selfishness, a hero is someone without an ounce of self interest who would kill themselves simply to make a small gesture of compassion. But to me there is nothing heroic about someone who values their own life so little that they would throw it away for nothing. That person is nothing but a fool chasing dreams of martyrdom rather than using their life to help people in the here and now.

Rating: 5/10

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