Kingdom and Kingship and Zombies
Zombies have been everywhere this past decade, or at least it sometimes feels that way. There’s relatively classic takes on the topic, like The Walking Dead, as well as subversions, like In The Flesh. In all of those cases, zombies are used to say something about humanity as a whole, but what they are used to say is something different every time, ever since George Romero used them as a metaphor for mindless consumerism.
The West, however, isn’t the only place that has been making use of zombies in their media. It’s been a staple in Eastern media as well, and there’s been quite a few recent Korean movies or TV series that deal with zombies, for example #Alive (an unintentionally poignant exploration of two people stuck in their apartments during a zombie apocalypse that came out in 2020), Train to Busan (which I haven’t seen), Zombie Detective (ditto) and Rampant (a movie where zombies attack historical Korea). The last has the most in common with the series I want to talk about here: Kingdom, a Netflix Original which is also a quasi-historical series, and also features a Joseon Korea threatened by a zombie apocalypse. But due to being a series, Kingdom has more room to explore its themes, which I would like to talk about here.
But before I start, I’d like to make it clear that I am not as into zombies as I could be. I am not an expert on the topic. My knowledge on Korea isn’t super in depth either (although I did pick some bits up during uni), and I am not Korean. I am also not saying that my analysis is The Definitive Way The Author Intended Things To Be Read. In fact, I think the author probably just wanted to create a fun zombie story. There’s a very good chance my analysis and interpretation are wrong. I’m just trying to have fun, and criticism is welcome.
( Having gotten that out of the way, I really like the way zombies are used as a story element in Kingdom. )
The West, however, isn’t the only place that has been making use of zombies in their media. It’s been a staple in Eastern media as well, and there’s been quite a few recent Korean movies or TV series that deal with zombies, for example #Alive (an unintentionally poignant exploration of two people stuck in their apartments during a zombie apocalypse that came out in 2020), Train to Busan (which I haven’t seen), Zombie Detective (ditto) and Rampant (a movie where zombies attack historical Korea). The last has the most in common with the series I want to talk about here: Kingdom, a Netflix Original which is also a quasi-historical series, and also features a Joseon Korea threatened by a zombie apocalypse. But due to being a series, Kingdom has more room to explore its themes, which I would like to talk about here.
But before I start, I’d like to make it clear that I am not as into zombies as I could be. I am not an expert on the topic. My knowledge on Korea isn’t super in depth either (although I did pick some bits up during uni), and I am not Korean. I am also not saying that my analysis is The Definitive Way The Author Intended Things To Be Read. In fact, I think the author probably just wanted to create a fun zombie story. There’s a very good chance my analysis and interpretation are wrong. I’m just trying to have fun, and criticism is welcome.
( Having gotten that out of the way, I really like the way zombies are used as a story element in Kingdom. )