Spurred by the critically-acclaimed box-office hit "Train to Busan" (2016) with Gong Yoo, South Korea had been producing a number of zombie films and TV series. Most notable among the movies were: "Rampant" (2018) with Hyun Bin and "#Alive" (2020) with Yoo Ah-in. Among the TV series, there was "Kingdom" (2019) with Ju Ji-hoon and Bae Doo-na, and just very recently, "Happiness" (2021) with Park Hyung-sik and Han Hyo-joo.
As the Covid-19 pandemic now entered its third year, another Korean zombie series is gaining a lot of international attention -- "All of Us are Dead." The main focus of this new series was Hyosan High School. Because his son Jin-su was always the target of cruel bullies, a science teacher Lee Byeong-chan (Kim Byung-chul) developed a virus which made his son into someone who could stand up to the bullies, even if he turned into a monster.
In the school, we follow the fates of 12 students in Class 2-5. The four lead characters were Cheong-san (Yoon Chan-young), his crush On-jo (Park Ji-hu), class president Nam-ra (Cho Yi-hyun), and both girls' crush Lee Su-hyeok (Park Solomon). At odds with the other students was Lee Na-yeon (Lee Yoo-mi), a rich girl with a snooty character. Elsewhere, archery champ Ha-ri (Ha Seung-ri) led a smaller group of students also trying to survive.
One distinct innovations of this series in zombie lore was the phenomenon of the "hambie," or a half-zombie. They were some people who have been bitten by the zombie horde, but did not turn into a full-fledged zombie. They have undead qualities of zombies (indestructible, super strength, super hearing) yet still held on to their human sensibilities. It was these hambies who provided the unpredictable moments of this series.
The situation of the community outside the school were also tackled, with stories of On-jo's father, veteran rescuer Nam So-ju (Jeon Bae-soo), Cheong-san's mother Mrs. Lee (Lee Ji-hyun) who just opened her new chicken restaurant, assemblywoman Bae Hae-sun (Park Eun-he), police detective Song Jae-ik (Lee Kyu-hyung), teenage mother Hee-su (Lee Chae-eun), among others. The governmental response to the crisis added further tension to the story.
It seems that much budget of this Netflix web series was earmarked for those mind-boggling original zombie effects. Aside from main cast who became zombies with more detailed make-up, there were hundreds more extras who had their own individual zombie makeup. There were some pretty imaginative ways that people turn into zombies -- the most memorable one should be that girl folded her body on itself in the MRI machine.
All sorts of emotional subplots had been inserted into the main zombie story line. There was major attention paid to the very real problem of physically and psychologically brutal bullying in schools, which was actually scarier than the zombies. Side stories of young romance, tests of friendship, filial devotion, social status conflicts, social media obsession, political privilege, and military brutality filled up the 12 episodes, which could've been shorter. 7/10.
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