a spoiler-free review
In preparation for the upcoming spooky holiday season, I have been in search of television series and movies that could put me into that delightfully festive Halloween mood, without repeating the classics. Oh, how I love a good vampire, zombie, or ghost movie! But what would I find?
After what felt like hours-long searches through Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu I stumbled upon a short Korean zombie series. To think… a zombie series that WASN’T The Walking Dead?! How good could it be?
I have not yet watched Train to Busan, nor any other non-American portrayal of zombies and the apocalypse in general, but after watching this show… my mind is BLOWN! If you have ever thought of watching a Korean zombie film, PLEASE, PLEASE DO!
The show I’m talking about is Kingdom. Here in the United States, it is available for viewing on Netflix. This South Korean show actually came out in 2019, but I had never heard of it until this past week when I binged it. I’m sure hundreds of people have spoken about it before, but it’s too good to not hop on the bandwagon and hype this show up for anyone else looking for a new show to breeze through.
There are currently only 2 seasons with 6 episodes in each, every episode averaging around 45 minutes, which is WAY shorter than I am used to, but each episode perfectly sets its scene and tells us as much as we, the viewers, need to know.
The series is actually based on a book entitled The Kingdom of the Gods by Kim Eun-hee and Yang Kyung-il (which I would love to read in the future if there is an English translation).
Update: Apparently there is! CHECK IT OUT!
The premise is this: A king is zombified and a plague of the deceased is rising from their graves, for reasons unbeknown to us, spreads across the land.
This only fuels the ongoing political struggle between the prince and his stepmother, the new queen, as well as her entire family who has slowly taken over most of the governing forces.
In order to bring peace to his country and stop his loved ones from being torn apart by ghastly “monsters,” as they are called in the show, the prince steps up to the plate, despite the danger that lies ahead from this new zombie plague and his own government turning against him in a fight for ultimate power.
The series is concise and powerful. Every episode ends with me having more answers and of course, even more questions!
I usually very much dislike (hate) watching things with a lot of death, political struggle, screaming, crying, gore, family struggles, you know, everything that usually happens in a show listed under horror and is all about the zombie apocalypse.
But! There is just something about this show that makes it feel so real and raw, and, okay, it feels a little overdone BUT for all I know, it’s historically accurate and only feels like a lot because I am not used to people having such ridiculous reactions to defiance. But that’s 2021 Dovie talking about a show set in 1601 (3 years after the Imjin War) so there should definitely be some differences in comparison to the modern-day.
Here are some of the things I really appreciate about the show:
- People’s reactions are actually realistic!
- It feels historically accurate
- The cast really sold it
- No animal deaths
- There is genuine evil, and it isn’t the zombies
- The show has a mission
- These zombies aren’t playing around
- So many twists and turns
People’s reactions are actually realistic!
How many times have I seen a zombie film, even in The Walking Dead, where a loved one dies in front of them, but they’ve been bitten so they, of course, come back to life and the family member welcomes their loved one back into their open arms like they aren’t about to be eaten alive by the person they hold most dear.
I understand that grief takes over and it is a terribly difficult situation, also it’s television so they have to pull at the audience’s heartstrings as much as possible, but geez! If I saw my dad die, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE MIND YOU, and then come back to life, well I would have a mini freak out and then escape. That’s obviously not my dad anymore! (I love you, Dad).
In Kingdom, these characters/actors are great at portraying the realistic fear and shock of witnessing the loss of life and the birth of reanimation in its most horrifying form.
People scream profanities, beg for their life to these unintelligible monsters, have the BEST shocked faces I have seen in a while, and overall, just seem so genuine in their fear and misunderstanding of their new life change.
Going through the apocalypse is not easy in the slightest, and I want to see some of that difficulty when I’m watching a series like this, so it doesn’t feel so manicured. To go along with this point is the next reason I really appreciate this show and that is ~
It feels historically accurate
I am no history buff, and I don’t know anything about Korea during 1601 but that doesn’t really matter for this point. What matters is that when I watched this show, it felt like 1601 Korea.
The wardrobe, set creation, makeup, hair, and everything encompassed in this show must have been quite the expense because it looks just absolutely fabulous.
I am not talking about ritzy dresses from the queen (although I was in love with her hair from start to finish), but the way people were so naturally dressed in accordance with their social standing felt so real. The medical practitioners had their specific garb, and the jerk politicians had their own (one man had such an obvious wig but my friend didn’t notice it so maybe it’s not as noticeable as I thought it to be).
Of course, it’s not only the clothing but the way life is depicted in general. At one point we see a little kid squatting over a ditch in his little village just using the restroom completely unphased that someone is walking by because that is life! I personally am unable to defecate with anyone in the house, but I would not have had that luxury had I been born 400 years prior.
The wilderness and stress of travel over rundown paths through the forest and mountains really forces you to put the travel of information into perspective during this time period.
Watching other shows, it can be stressful when there is false information being spread because someone can just send a mass text to the whole high school like they always did in teen movies in the early 2000s. However, in a show like this where information is spread by word of mouth and documents it makes more sense when the people 4 miles away have no idea about the zombies, or if someone died, because the information hasn’t reached them yet!
And don’t get me started on how wonderfully dirty everyone progressively gets.
Something I very much dislike about end-of-the-world movies is when the women are usually just dirty enough to still be sexy, if that makes any sense. Like, their hair is still stringy from not being washed but their skin is still flawless with a glow, they just have a little dirt rubbed on them and their prop clothes are a little dingy.
But Kingdom does it right. Those with traditional hairstyles have them in for as long as possible and you can see them slowly coming undone but there’s no time or resources to be washing and restyling. Their clothes get just completely strung through the wringer with blood, dirt, sweat, and just the natural grime that comes with living during this period.
There are still a few outfit changes (mainly by those with more social status) but even then, the clothing has meaning and purpose, so it is fun to see what beautiful thing they’re going put on next, especially as an American who really doesn’t ever see traditional Korean garb that isn’t in its most pristine state.
There are so many other historical attributes but it’s best to breathe it all in yourself. I don’t want to completely take away your experience!
The cast really sold it
Everyone in this show did a fabulous job! The bad guys, the good guys, the extras, the zombies! I felt immersed and loved every second of this apocalypse.
I also finally realized where I recognized Bae Doona (Seo-bi the physician in Kingdom) from, and that was Sense 8, another Netflix hit!
There isn’t much else to say on this point because it’s something you have to witness for yourself. So go watch it!!
No (zombie related) animal deaths
As an animal lover, it just kills me when I have to watch an innocent little baby get killed on television. I know they’re just a fabulous actor hopefully being paid a gracious amount for their participation, but it really hurts my heart to watch even if it’s fake. Luckily, I believe there was only one scene where you get the idea that a horse is being injured but the baby escapes!
So, there was a scene with a sacrificial pig that you see briefly pass the screen but as for animals that are harmed by zombies there are none that I can recall.
(There are definitely human deaths, including children which was a little difficult to bear at some points, but the animals are okay this round!)
There is a genuine evil, and it isn’t the zombies
Zombies SUCK! They kill and eat everyone and are scary and smelly, I get it! But once someone becomes a zombie there’s no point in pushing social expectations for decency onto the undead. They are constantly in survival mode; Their hunger pushes them to exterminate entire villages and run as far as necessary to eat more human flesh.
BUT! They cannot be the only ones faulted during such an atrocious outbreak. Do you know who can, however? THE GOVERNMENT and everyone else that’s alive.
The only thing that can save you during the apocalypse is working together with others and finding a way out of this terrible situation. But when people’s selfishness gets in the way to the point that they are willing to sacrifice those they don’t want to save because of the effort it takes or their social standing (WHICH IS NOT RELEVANT DURING A ZOMBIE OUTBREAK) it takes a toll on defenses and leaves you more vulnerable to being attacked.
So, you may be thinking, “why is this something you like?”
Well, it’s realistic! Zombies suck for obvious reasons but humans suck for the evils within. And in a show like this, there are more than a few drastic examples of evil. These characters are committed to their offenses, and I was left shocked left and right every episode. This kept me driven not only against the undead but almost rooting for them to kill the repulsively evil people. (It did make me feel a little evil myself, but their deaths are just karma after everything they’ve done ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
The show has a mission
The show’s whole purpose is to discover the reason for the outbreak, stop it, and save everyone along the way while uncovering hidden truths as they fight on.
Considering the length of the show so far, we have learned so much! Many times, in other shows, I feel, the fighting for survival goes on forever with no real attainment of knowledge so the show just keeps going (which I like sometimes because I have a problem with not being able to let go of fictional characters and their stories), but Kingdom provides resolve for so many issues every episode. Even if it isn’t something positive, I at least know why, which is very important to me.
These zombies aren’t playing around
I guess zombies in media really haven’t been slow since last century but there’s something so bloodthirsty about the monsters in this show that drive home the feeling of “crap, I’m going to die.”
They run fast, are usually in herds (which, in a way, is endearing – like, they like to all hang out together as friends) and they don’t quit! These aren’t your run-of-the-mill, uncoordinated zombies, like from Scooby-Doo Where Are You!’s “Which Witch is Which?” They aren’t bright (luckily) so they mostly just force themselves forward at top speed with full strength, but they do not give up! I wonder if they ever starve.
So many twists and turns
Last, but not least, there were so many shocking things that happened, I was constantly on my toes. Which I usually don’t like. I don’t like being unsure of what’s going to happen, but it was all dramatically perfect.
Now, I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t hand over too much information regarding this roller coaster of a series but let me refer back to one of my last appreciation points and say, in this show, there is genuine evil, and it is not the zombies. The fire that burned inside me watching these characters meet their downfall was kind of a new feeling, very exciting!
I am dying for a new season, which is looking like a possibility in the future, but as of now, there is only a “special episode” entitled Kingdom: Ashin of the North which was released this year, 2021, which I believe serves to answer even more zombie related questions that we have from the season 2 finale. I haven’t watched it yet, but I am extremely excited to learn more about this fictional world and its backstory.
There are some trigger warnings. There is the death of children, decapitation, a quick disembowelment, abuse of power, and misogyny. If these things do not stop you right in your tracks then I highly, highly recommend watching this series ASAP!
The good always triumph! At least that’s all we can hope for, right?
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