Why So Blu?

Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Four years after South Korea s total decimation in TRAIN TO BUSAN, the zombie thriller that captivated audiences worldwide, acclaimed director Yeon Sang-ho brings us PENINSULA (on 4K UHD Blu-ray), the next nail-biting chapter in his post-apocalyptic world. Jung-seok, a soldier who previously escaped the diseased wasteland, relives the horror when assigned to a covert operation with two simple objectives: retrieve and survive. When his team unexpectedly stumbles upon survivors, their lives will depend on whether the best or worst of human nature prevails in the direst of circumstances. Train to Busan Presents: PENINSULA, is released on 4K UHD Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD November 24 from Well Go USA Entertainment!

Film

Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula is the new sequel that moves the story forward in the franchise. It is the third film and a sequel to the middle feature Train to Busan. The first film was a web-feature called Seoul Station, which served as a prequel to Train to Busan. Now with that confusion out of the way, Peninsula follows the viral outbreak four years later. The rest of the world knows about the outbreak and have pretty much teamed up with the South Korean government to keep them isolated from everyone else in order to contain the spread. Western variety shows quip on about the unfortunate state of affairs in the peninsula.

Jung-seok (Gang-Dong-Won) is a soldier and survivor of the initial outbreak. He’s on a covert assignment to retrieve a package and survive. Things get complicated when he stumbles on a large survivor’s enclave, where it has turned into a bit of a “Thunder Dome,” if you will. Gangsters have taken over blocks and use some of their subjects in bouts of twisted games where they pit the living up against the undead. Jung-seok just needs to navigate through these instances of chaos and complete the mission. Failure is not an option.

I was fairly excited to watch Peninsula having finished watching Train to Busan a few weeks prior. I did like Train to Busan but thought it was overrated. This shocked some of my friends because they had been jockeying Train to Busan for a while. I don’t know, maybe it had something to do with Train to Busan being heavily promoted and Peninsula being only moderately promoted. My expectations were set a bit lower this time out. Peninsula was also injected with more hyper-realistic sequences than Train was. Peninsula has a phenomenal car chase in which souped up vehicle are trying to outrun ferocious hordes and other souped-up vehicles. It’s as if they dropped Land of the Dead, World War Z, and Fast and the Furious into Peninsula. It was pure rock n’ roll and those may be the factors as to why I enjoyed Peninsula a bit more.

Another factor may be that Peninsula seems to have distanced itself from Train to Busan since there is no mention of the previous film at all. Jung-seok is a survivor of the zombie outbreak and that’s about it. He origin story is very non-specific. Personally, I enjoyed Peninsula more and I will need to go back and watch Seoul Station to get the full story. If you want more of an escapist adventure, then I think Peninsula more than does the job.

 

Video

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 2160p

Dolby Vision: Yes

HDR: HDR10

WCG: Yes

Size: BD-66

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Clarity/Detail: Peninsula looks clean and clear. I did not notice sharpening or over intrusive contrast boosting. There may have been an instance of post-production tweaking here and there but nothing that drop the score way down – let alone be a distraction.

Depth: The 4K format really brings films like this to a head. Peninsula is filled with many scenes that really show off the depth of this new world in a rich and vibrant way.

Black Levels: Peninsula takes place mostly in the dark and at night. The black levels do not crush, and I was able to “see” everything clearly without ever having to mess with my already calibrated settings. Being that the film does take place mostly at night, I’d advise folks to watch it at night or in a completely darkened room for best results.

Color Reproduction: The color palette is far from muted. During the scenes inside of the makeshift coliseums and slums, those cities are filled with many activities and vibrant nightlife. The colors are rich and never band or pixelate.

Flesh Tones: Flesh tones are nice natural. Some characters can look a bit grimy, but you can see an abundance of detail on people’s faces during close-ups.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.

 

Audio

Audio Format(s): Korean Dolby Atmos, Korean Dolby TrueHD 7.1, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Subtitles: English (An additional English subtitle option is also available that captions everyone, even the Korean actors that speak English)

Dynamics: You know that Peninsula would be a no-holds-barred sonic extravaganza. I’m pleased to say that Well Go USA has come through by blessing us with this great Dolby Atmos enhanced soundtrack. It’s a very busy soundtrack in that the film has countless moments of stillness mixed with many moments of madness.

Height: The height channels really came through during the spectacular zombie-car chase, where it sounded like the cars were being pursued by ocean waves instead of zombie waves. Also, during the siege in the earlier part of the film that involved more targeted gunfire in enclosed interiors, lots of bullet ricochets all over those additional height channels.

Low Frequency Extension: The LFE subwoofer channel did some extraneous lifting in order to bring the deadly outbreaks. By extraneous I mean it worked its butt off, but sounded clean and tight, free from distortion.

Surround Sound Presentation: The surround sound channels handled the ambient action nicely. Bullets, debris, and explosions swirled through to the backstage are, which grips the viewer.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is crystal clear all the way through. That center channel worked overtime in bringing the chaos forward through the soundscape.

 

Extras

Train to Busan: Presents: Peninsula skimps on the in-depth special features and leaves them off the 4K disc altogether. You can find the extras on the Blu-ray, which is included with the 4K disc. These extras feature interviews with the cast and director. Trailers for other Well Go USA films are also included on the Blu-ray disc.

• Making of (HD)
• Interviews (HD)
• Trailers (HD)
• Blu-ray (The extras are on the Blu-ray only)

 

Summary

Color me shocked and awed. As much as I enjoyed the first film, I thought Peninsula did a great job in being its own thing. The 4K video on this disc was stellar and the Dolby Atmos soundtrack really put in the work. The special features are severely limited and only available if you pop the Blu-ray in. Train to Busan: Presents: Peninsula is recommended!

 

DISCLAIMER: Peninsula 4K UHD Blu-ray was judged and graded using the following 4K certified Ultra HD Premium television set found HERE , 4K UHD Blu-ray player HERE, and Dolby Atmos 7.2 AVR HERE.  Make sure to check out all our 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews archived HERE.  The images used above within the review are not actual 4K screenshots. They are for illustrative purposes only.  

 

 

Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula is released

on 4K UHD Blu-ray November 24, 2020!

 

ORDER NOW!