Horror fans, get excited: Yeon Sang-ho’s follow-up to Train to Busan, the 2016 movie that became a hit overseas and a cult classic in North America, being deeply appreciated for its novel approach to the zombie genre, is coming to the U.S.
Peninsula has been picked up for distribution around the world; Well Go USA, the distribution company that specializes in bringing Asian market genre films to North America, has picked up the distribution rights for the U.S.
Yeon has made a point to counter the narrative that Peninsula is a direct sequel to Train to Busan, saying it is not a sequel because it’s not a continuation of the same story, but happens in the same universe. The best way to think of it is to view it similarly to the relationship between The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead or 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later: Train to Busan follows a group of people who board a bullet train from Seoul to Busan only to be trapped when a sick woman infects people on board with the zombie virus and the passengers must band together to quarantine the infected passengers and survive. Peninsula is set roughly four years after the events of Busan and tells the story of former soldier Jung-seok, who managed to escape the zombie outbreak overseas. However, with the Korean peninsula ravaged by the apocalypse, he’s given the order to return and, while there, meets with a group of survivors. Yeon previously released an animated prequel to Train to Busan titled Seoul Station, set on the same day as the events in Busan.
Peninsula is currently in production and hopes to debut at Cannes in late May with a release set for this summer. While Busan was a critical and commercial success in its own right, Peninsula is likely to enjoy a bigger boost of awareness for two reasons: For starters, horror fans are already keeping their eyes peeled for this one, and the success of Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite has increased interest in Korean films. Busan had a budget of just $8 million and saw a global return of almost $93 million. Even with Peninsula‘s budget estimated to be twice that of Busan‘s, it’s certain to be another monster hit and potentially even bigger than Busan thanks to that aforementioned increased awareness.
Carlos Hansen, CEO of BF Distribution (which is distributing Peninsula in Latin America), agreed that the timing is perfect for Yeon’s follow-up film:
“Four years ago we boarded an amazing movie we saw in Cannes and we could not have imagined our audience would have received Train to Busan so well the way they did. Since then many Korean titles have been released and now we can see Parasite’s amazing performance everywhere. Momentum is built for Korean cinema to consolidate its presence not only in Latin America but worldwide. 2020 it’s the perfect year to bring Peninsula to the world.”
There’s no release date yet for Peninsula in the U.S. (foreign film release dates get a much shorter window than domestic pictures) but we can expect it will likely follow the same path as Parasite. That film had its world debut at Cannes in May before releasing in America in early November.
