Watching Zombie horror ‘Kingdom’ on Netflix — Life in Pandemic

I did not think the pandemic would change my TV habits. During the early months of the Corona surges, I was into Bollywood gangster movies. All those gunshots, chase and murders unexplainably calmed me. Then it was an underdog’s revenge story. Now it is zombies. Who knew watching infected men and women bite each other to death, sorry living death, was my balm for this year? I would find myself writing on my laptop and playing zombies vs humans on another screen. An analogy of the burning actual-world if you please. Perhaps disaster films are the ‘optimistic social genre of utopia’, breaking down racial barriers and piling up social cooperation. Psychologists call this downward social comparison whereby watching shows on less survivable situations than the Covid-19, makes you feel better because you are comparing yourself to someone in a worse situation. Quite sadistic, I admit. The upsurge for pandemic movie binge watching branches from a similar vein. Charles Bramesco writes that such TV habits are a form of emergency preparedness for the mind whereby the movie “allows audiences to vicariously live through the end of days and survey what will be left after”. Hello Kingdom. Two seasons, each with six episodes, of the new Kdrama on Netflix looked inviting. It is part zombie horror and part historical drama with a strong social commentary on the class structure. This political horror thriller is adapted from the webcomic series The Kingdom of the Gods by Kim Eun-hee and drawn by Yang Kyung-il. The Netflix show is directed by Kim Seong-hun (Tunnel) and written by Kim Eun-hee herself.

Kingdom takes place in the late 15th or early 16th century — in the Joseon dynasty period — after the Japanese invasion. It is based on the historical plague that swept through Korea during the Joseon dynasty, killing thousands in days. Kingdom is a metaphorical lala land. The society is rotting. The king is a monster, secretly locked up by the royal court and fed with — not by — servants at night. There is hunger, unhappiness and the brunt of heavy taxes on citizens. The noblemen are trying to get maximum benefits out of the unlikely situation of the monster-king. The plan includes guarding the unborn son with his too-young wife (Kim Hye-jun) which will take the throne away from the hands of the current crown prince, Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon), born from a concubine. There’s also a secret rebel group in the making.

Meanwhile, in the commoner’s world, in a community hospital in an impoverished village far from the palace, an ex-soldier patient named Yeong-sin (Kim Sung-kyu) makes soup with the body of a dead person, and feeds it to starving patients as vension. Come night, he and the female physician in-charge watch in horror as the patients transform into yowling monsters that crave human flesh and blood. The infection spreads at an alarming rate and as Season 1 ends, the plague gets very close to the capital. Season 2 becomes more political with the prince and his allies trying to save the kingdom from plague while the palace rests on closed doors, sacrificial new born babies and murders.

Read : 7 Best Korean dramas on Netflix

Why watch Zombie horror Kingdom on Netflix?

1.The Zombies

The zombies are growly, snarly and prowl-y. They thrive on flagrant chases in night time and hide themselves under floorboards, caves and wells during day. The artists playing zombies underwent two months training for the show and it definitely shows. Mutilated limbs, sprinting dead men, ecstatic cannibalism, and more blood than you’ve seen in your life.

2. Eye candy

For most of it, both seasons of Kingdom are a sanguinary war to defeat the zombies. But there’s also the grandeur of the palace, insane sword fights, ice lakes, flying arrows on fire, and fine royal garments. Brilliant colours of trees and grasslands complement the bluish frosted mountain tops. Muted colour palettes of common men offer stark contrast to the silks of the royal court. Bloody bodies in blue waters compete with red stained earthy tones are visual shocks. Architecture, stair cases, dimly lit rooms brewing secrets and betrayals, and rooms stacked with scrolls delight.

3.The Female physician

Seo-Bi (Doona Bae), the physician who works at a community hospital, is fierce and gentle. She studies the zombies, their characteristics and tries to find a cure. She pores over the notes of the head physician — who had treated the king — and makes notes of her research. She reminded me of women scientists, especially the books The Lie Tree by Frances Harding and Cora Seborne of The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (read review).

4.Elegant head gear

If the zombies are too much to take, you can always fix your eyes on the amazing costumes and unique hats. Here are men in the coolest hats I’ve seen in any drama, South Korean or otherwise, fighting against disgruntled, disfigured dead-men-walking. Different officials have different kinds of head gear; the queen has a more majestic one. Elegant head gears lashing upon zombie rampages are good to watch.

5. All are equal but some are more equal

While it is frivolous to compare real life incidents that affect us, one cannot help but wonder how the narrative always remains the same, be it on television or reality. The rich remain rich and the poor are always at a disadvantage. Kingdom reminded me of Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer which explores class misbalances between the front and back compartments of a hypothetical train that roams the world (and also his Oscar winning Parasite which is a realistic look at the rich vs poor using elevation to literally set the class differences). In Season 1 of Kingdom when the physician and soldier plead with higher officials to burn the zombies, not bury them, it raises eyebrows. The officials decide to burn the peasant’s bodies but bury those from higher social class. Later there’s an escape via the only ship in dock. Again, only the noblemen make the cut to this Noah’s ark. The escape does not end well though. While the privileged may argue that the illness treats all as equal, those higher up in the society can manipulate their power and privilege to shield themselves better. The lower classes are at the mercy of the more powerful. Expectant mothers are imprisoned by the Queen to make sure she remains all-powerful. A man tries to save extra food for himself and turns up burning down all hoarded supplies of the village. Not to forget that the outbreak of the disease started with hunger — because of people having no food to eat. This makes you wonder who are the real monsters? Whether the zombies — indirectly created by the societal structure — or a corrupt, selfish society or men who hold power?

Some things do not make any sense in Kingdom. For example the zombies who patter away like cockroaches when the sun’s rays fall, are seen fighting in broad daylight in the second season. I didn’t seem to mind — it might be a mutation or an ‘unexplainable twist’. After all, haven’t we been terrified already that the corona virus incubation period doesn’t always conform to expectations or that cases might be asymptomatic? One episode had nothing other than people falling dead left and right. So what? The cure seemed too convenient. But also, there are people who sacrifice themselves, princes who try to source food through tunnels and officials who put kingdom over king. Kingdom is gross and unstoppable. It doesn’t make you forget the pandemic raining upon us, but it makes you feel weird-good that we aren’t under a zombie attack. Then a wee bit hopeful that maybe we will soon step into a new normal in our today’s world, like the people in Kingdom did. Or if nothing, the show distracts you with the awesome head gears. But not before reminding you that rot always stays.

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The images in this post are from promotional posters of Season 2 of Kingdom by Netflix