Monthly Archives: April 2020

Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula

Four years ago, I took a chance, and convinced a friend of mine to also roll the dice and went to see this South Korean zombie movie Train to Busan. It turned out to be the best zombie movie I have ever seen, beating out 1979s Dawn of the Dead by the slimmest of margins. Dawn is the classic film that launched the zombie apocalypse genre and is a terribly on-point satire of American consumerism, however Train has a best set of characters and story, but not by much.

Last weekend I watched the anime prequel to Train to Busan, Seoul Station. Not as groundbreaking or as tight at Train it still maintained a high level of quality and made for an excellent companion piece to the first movie.

Now we are finally getting the sequel to Train to Busan with the lengthy title; Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula.

Set in the years following the outbreak of the fast zombie plague Peninsulatakes place in a Korea that has become an apocalyptic nightmare. Directed and co-written by Yeon Sang-ho, who directed the original, Peninsula looks to widen toe scope away from the claustrophobic setting of Train into a wider dysfunctional world.

The truth of the matter is that most of the time sequels are a disappointment but I have my hopes and in these dark times we all need hope.

Peninsula is set for release this year, 2020, and is likely to be available as a Video on Demand rental.

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Life’s Most Vital and Most Difficult Skill

There are a lot of skills to master in life some are more important that others but there’s one in my opinion that rises above the rest in significance and sadly it is the one a vast majority of people find difficult to acquire.

At my, what used to be in pre-Covid 19 times, regular writer’s groups meetings we take turns reading aloud 1200-1500 words of our work and then sit silently as everyone present takes turns giving you notes and feedback on the project. On any one piece opinions are bound to vary, sometimes quite a bit, but each and every time there is feedback that is dead on target, some element where intent or choice has gone astray and I’ve fouled up what I was trying to achieve as a writer. The natural and very human tendency is to reject that which is painful to turn defensive against the critique. It’s always possible to justify why the feedback is wrong and not the piece. It’s much harder to admit error, accept that that truth, but without that vital step there can be no improvement.

That’s’ the life skill I am talking about, no specifically learning to take writing critique but learning to admit that you are in error. This is something that transcends political philosophies. Few people are willing to admit error. I see it over and over again. The leaps of logic, the twisted arguments, the reframing’ of facts all to avoid facing that an earlier call, decision, or position was in fact the wrong one. Sadly, until such an acceptance is achieved it is impossible for a person to learn from that error and move on to better and greater things.

I am no more immune to this failing than I am to Covid 19. I try and struggle to keep an open mind about things and accept that I may have held terribly wrong position in the past. I like to think that doing so with my writing has helped me leverage this skill in other areas but I am also painfully aware how easily we deceive ourselves. This is not a skill that is learned and then nothing more is required. It takes constant vigilance because that easy route, that path of least resistance where you justify the error rather than admit is always there and it always looks more inviting than the long hard road of truth.

 

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