Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Year: 2020
Country: South Korea
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
With the virus still rampant in South Korea, a soldier who several years earlier escaped the country is asked to return with several others to look for a lost fortune, but when he finds a deadly group of survivors living in the area holding his team for participants in zombie games, he races to save them.
Review:
Overall, this one is every bit as enjoyable as the original. Most of the films' positives come from the stellar mixture of heart and action, which was so prominent in the first film. The introduction to this early on with the soldier twice forced to make harsh decisions that seal the fate of various people that are clearly deserving of help, but the decision not to risk the health of the people he's around forces him to leave them behind to die. Knowing that both situations involve a child during the apocalypse, which is automatically triggering, while the devastating emotional result of those scenes is quite familiar, which allows them to resonate quite well. The setup we get with the family and their grandfather while he recuperates offers up some heartwarming moments as well, with all the time we spend getting to know their dynamics and getting an idea about their future outcome.
In addition to the heart and soul, the action here is incredibly fun. The zombie attacks are just as ferocious and vicious as before, bending and contorting themselves and running after their prey at high speeds. Leaping over barricades or other protective measures meant to keep them out, the athleticism and daring abilities they originally demonstrated are still employed here, which is not only still terrifying but adds a nice bit of continuity to tie the films together. The group mentality they display by just overwhelming and swarming victims who tear them to pieces as a result offers plenty to like here, as the scenes of the zombies attacking on the boat or overwhelming the rescue truck for survivors show off their deadliness in fine form, as well as letting some nice action-packed attacks come to the forefront. With the ferocity shown in numerous tense encounters and battles throughout the film, there’s also a constant, pervasive threat connected to them, which makes their scattered appearances all the more terrifying.
This one also manages to score nicely with other bits of high-energy stunt work. After being rescued by the survivor and her daughter, the resulting series of car chases through the city causes plenty of vehicular stunts, crashes, and impressive maneuvers of crashing into the zombies in order to get by them. Even the tactics of using remote-controlled cars with lights and sound-makers attached for diversions make for some creative sequences as well, adding some variety to the scenes instead of just rushing into the swarm at high speeds and sending them flying. There's also a nice bit involving the capture of one of his team members who’s forced to participate in a fight club of sorts against captured zombies with other prisoners in front of the gang as a form of amusement. The finale, featuring a slew of car-chases and gun-fights both on foot and inside the racing cars trying to escape the zombie-swarmed streets, contains all sorts of high-energy action with all sorts of stunts and impressive action with the zombies getting taken out while the humans carry on their struggles.
All that said, the film does have some minor problems. One of the biggest drawbacks is a decidedly obvious use of CGI that tends to ruin many of the action scenes and ruins the tone of the sequence. This is mostly obvious in the car-crash sequences against the zombies, where the shots of them bouncing off the cars and going flying through the air or getting run over by their wheels, where some of the film’s most hideous computer-rendering effects are visible. With the tactic appearing throughout these sequences and looking quite obvious throughout, it adds a completely different tone to the film by being too much like a comic-book action movie rather than a terrifying horror film. As well, the other issue here is several unnecessary and useless subplots that drag the running time out longer than it needs to be. A subplot involving the girl and the leader of the rival gang feels unnecessary and tacked on for more emotional depth, a lame segment about him still needing to atone for the earlier actions of leaving her behind goes nowhere when she doesn’t even remember it and there’s no need for multiple double-crosses involving the initial mission into the country as it’s not necessary. Otherwise, the film is quite enjoyable with a lot to like.
Overview: ****.5/5
Packed with action and emotional resonance, even if the former is out of touch with the tone of the film and the subplots aren’t as necessary this time around, the film isn’t as impactful as the original, but is a worthy and enjoyable film taken on its own terms. No doubt fans of the original, zombie-genre fanatics, or those curious about the hype will definitely be interested in this, while viewers turned off by the change in tone or aren’t fans of this style should heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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