Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman (2023, Kim Seong-sik)

Until the third act, when it suddenly becomes clear the film never really had anywhere to go (at least not in this installment), Dr. Cheon is mostly delightful. Even the listless ending isn’t not entertaining, it’s just listless.

After a magic-heavy dream sequence opening, Cheon settles into the gag–Gang Dong-won is a “doctor” who solves hauntings for his YouTube channel. Lee Dong-hwi plays his faithful sidekick, who does all the editing, takes the pay, doesn’t ask too many questions. Not even about Gang’s actual scheme: he’s a trained psychiatrist who knows he can’t cure people’s cultural beliefs in ghosts but can address the symptoms.

Or something. Lee doesn’t care as long as the checks clear.

It will turn out Gang’s actually using the actual mental health help racket to track down the very real, very evil shaman who killed his little brother and grandfather. Huh Joon-ho plays the evil shaman, who can possess people with ease, which makes for numerous good chase sequences and fight scenes. Dr. Cheon’s least realistic element might be Gang’s adeptness as a combination street and sword fighter. While the film hints at his quest to identify Huh (whose existence is something of a theory between Gang and his mentor, Kim Jong-soo), there’s no indication Gang’s been training.

Maybe it just comes with the magic.

The setup involves Gang and Lee taking damsel-in-distress Esom’s case and heading to a remote village. Esom can see dead people all around her and so on, including the evil spirit inhabiting her little sister, Park So-yi. Esom’s ostensibly going to be Lee’s love interest (Gang’s got no time for love), but no one told Esom. And then the movie itself forgets about it towards the end. Dr. Cheon only runs ninety-eight minutes, and they’re clawing for that runtime; there’s lots of delay. Good thing the cast’s so fun.

Well, Gang, Lee, and Kim. And Park to some degree. Since Esom’s in the place of Gang’s love interest but isn’t, she’s missing traditional functions. For a while, it seems like she might have more significance than a plot delivery device.

She does not.

Huh’s a threatening villain, but still cartoonish.

For most of the film, director Kim keeps a fine pace going, balancing the comic and action sequences. The story’s small but big, with the second act dipping into the flashback well a little at a time until the whole story finally comes out. But the geography–Esom and Park’s haunted village and its immediate surroundings (well, drivable immediate surroundings)–is rather finite. And since the movie spends the first half pretending Gang shouldn’t have a plan for this eventuality (one of his “fake” exorcisms leading to the real magic bad guy), it starts feeling cramped.

So instead of focusing on Gang, Dr. Cheon leans heavily on everyone else. Esom’s got damsel stuff, Lee and Kim have sidekick stuff, Huh’s got evil stuff. Gang’s around a lot and gets to charm a lot, but he doesn’t have a character arc. Not even the foreboding revenge arc; Kim warns Gang not to act with vengeance in his heart and whatnot, but it doesn’t even matter. Especially not once the film goes all out with the CGI in the third act. There’s a lot of smart, action-oriented magic on display in the set pieces in the first and second acts, but the third act decides it’s time to unlock the secrets of the universe onscreen.

It’s way too much for such little emotional stakes, derailing the film. And there’s not time to get it back on track. Dr. Cheon goes out with a bang, which is not what it needs.

Hopefully, they’ll figure out something for Gang to do in the next one.

Even if they don’t, get enough of the cast back, and it won’t matter.

Dr. Cheon’s a fun ride, but it’s (too?) determined just to be the beginning.

Peninsula (2020, Yeon Sang-ho)

Peninsula is the sequel to Train to Busan but more like it just takes place in the same universe. It’s part of the Train to Busan Extended Universe, much like Land of the Dead would’ve been part of the Night of the Living Dead Extended Universe. And watching Peninsula, you realize just how much it helped having the good actors in the first one and the whole “zombies on a train” thing going because without the train and without Ma Dong-seok? Writer and director Yeon doesn’t so much flounder as flap uncontrollably. Peninsula is a hodgepodge of borrowed ideas—okay, what if it’s a heist movie but also Escape from New York but also Land of the Dead but also Fury Road but also Fast & Furious.

And Jurassic Park III, can’t forget Jurassic Park III.

The only thing impressive about Yeon’s script is how quickly he moves from one ripped off item to another.

But the film isn’t really anything “with zombies” because there aren’t a lot of zombies. Most of the movie is exceptionally ineffective lead Gang Dong-won trying to rescue his brother-in-law (Kim Do-yoon, who fails to be sympathetic in his helplessness and is just annoying) from crazed Army sergeant Kim Min-jae. Kim works for Koo Gyo-hwan (who’s playing one of those slimy officers who doesn’t know what’s really going on with his men, which sadly doesn’t turn out to be a Good, the Bad, and the Ugly reference because it would’ve been a good reference and the film doesn’t do those). They were supposed to be rescuing people but then the world quarantined the Korean Peninsula–Peninsula, get it—abandoning not just the stranded military and Korean citizens, but countless zombies as well.

The zombies aren’t really important.

They run. It’s important they run. But they’re not important. Kim’s important. Koo’s important. Now, both Kim and Koo give bad performances—actually it’s possible Kim’s performance is fine but his terrible mullet wig is ruining things. Lots of bad wigs in Peninsula. Lots of bad technicals, unfortunately.

The last twenty-five minutes of the movie, which manages to have multiple terrible endings, all of them protracted, also has some rather godawful CGI car chasing a la a Fast & Furious mockbuster. Gang’s teamed up with badass survivor woman Lee Jung-hyun, who’s got two adorable and badass zombie-killer daughters, tween Lee Re and, you know, nine year-old Lee Ye-won. The big drive-out at the end has Lee Re driving one car, Gang in another, and Kim and the bad guys in pursuit. The special effects are ambitious in it’s a bold move to try to do the kind of composites Yeon executes without a lot of budget. Ambition aside, it’s a complete fail, with the CGI so limited there aren’t even figures driving the cars during the exterior shots.

And it’s boring.

Peninsula is a boring, grim-dark action movie without any likable characters, at best mediocre performances (Lee Jung-hyun and the daughters are fine, like… the kids are cute and it’s believable Mom’s not putting up with Gang’s bullshit). The more interesting movie is what happened to them before they met Gang and Kim, but whatever. Nothing is the interesting choice in Peninsula.

Not even when Yeon apparently gives Gang an unlimited ammo cheat code, which just makes you wonder why Gang will occasionally stop shooting the (rarely) approaching zombies at dramatic moments but have thirty rounds for the next thirty zombies to get to the next set piece, which will be from an entirely different movie.

It could be worse, sure, but it’s pretty bad. Bad enough I’m surprised it’s from the same filmmaker as the original. If you’re going to do a sellout sequel, at least be do it entertainingly. And with the right CGI ambitions for your budget.