Official Trailer:
The Strong Are Now Ripping Apart the Weak. It Happens All The Time
When Hollywood ran out of ideas with Zombie Genre, Train to Busan movie came along which reimagined Zombies, brought them alive on a train and gave us a nail-baiting thriller ride. Train to Busan felt like Mad Max: Fury Road on a train. By the time the climax arrived in Train to Busan I was at the edge of the seat faintly hoping the director not to go in for a finish like Night of the Living Dead 🥺 Now comes the latest Korean series All of us are Dead and the first thought that crossed my mind was what more could be done with this genre, that too in a 12 episodes series format. After finishing the series, all I can say is in the hands of a good writer Zombies can be kept alive, kicking, biting, and they can also mutate to grow conscience and goals!! Seong-il Cheon, the writer of All of us are Dead has done an exceptional job in injecting inventiveness into the genre. The school as the epicenter setup gives the writer ample scope to seamlessly build and stage human drama which keeps us hooked throughout. Is it a right manner to say the series is superbly entertaining when zombies have craving for intestines? What makes it more entertaining is how the writer and director cleverly gives few zombies character, memory, and a purpose, like say revenge!! A Zombie with a Terminator Attitude!!
There is lot going on in the series. The show has fascinating characters. We do get the usual tropes, bullies, role model boys and girls, and selfish jerks. Then we get the interesting characters with shades of grey. The human traits of friendship, social status dynamics, jealousy, revenge, tragedy, sacrifice are integrated into the story skillfully giving time and space for the characters to breath. There are really moving sequences where few characters are willing to sacrifice their lives to save the rest. Director has done a superb job pacing the human drama with action pieces.
Another cool thing the writer and director team has done is combining the social commentary, government and military, teens vs adults’ interplay into the drama with nuance and craft. Listing out few that worked for me:
- Strong vs weak premise – in a society weak are at the mercy of the strong and we don’t necessarily protect the weak (this can also be read as minorities). What if one of the weak channels the anger in unleashing a virus that turns the human to zombies which are much stronger than the humans. The hunter becomes the hunted. Seong-il Cheon, doesn’t take the lazy approach of poetic justice. Yes, we do get few instances of poetic justice, but the writer balances it – a bully becomes a stronger living dead with a purpose, with a goal!! Now that is a twist, I never saw coming 😳
- As the help doesn’t seem to arrive, teenagers lose hope as they don’t see a way out of the hell. Understandably they grow cynical of the adults, slowly they lose not just the hope of rescue but also the trust on the adults and the state. What is valuable to the society, young or the old? (Aside: I can’t resist myself making a connection to the current headscarf issue that is going on in state of Karnataka, India. While the adults are quibbling over the uniform color for the butterflies, what will be going on in the minds of the teenagers about the adults? About the state? About us?) By the way, this premise could be used easily to show the state and the military as a ruthless one-dimensional entity. No, writer and the director don’t take the easy route. The military and political leaders are given shades of character and made to look human. Yes, there is personal career motive, but it is balanced with sense of duty, family vs duty (saving the public vs loved ones) dilemma, pushed to make tough decisions with deadly consequences (saving the many at the cost of sacrificing few survivors). They have captured the reality well, where we, the humans, are not simple binaries, plain good or evil, we are full of multitudes.
- Series brings out the dilemma of a cop and fireman – saving the survivors vs their survival. And the challenge of saving the public vs saving their loved ones. Story seamlessly pits all these along with military takeover and imposition of martial law. Surviving teenagers not only have to outrun the zombies they also need to escape the city before it gets annihilated by the bombs. Did the teenagers make it to the camp? Or they are also turned?
Of course, this genre is never complete without action and bites!! Action sequences in All of us are Dead rival big budget films. They are most intense, highly kinetic, and horrific. Camerawork, editing, and music add vigor and momentum to the action sequences. Most to all the action pieces are superbly constructed, but If I must pick, which is hard, I will go with the brawl in the library, ruckus in the cafeteria, and the escape from the sport’s complex sequences. These zombies contort, survive the fall, bite hard, and they do have a craving for the intestine😱
The show is unapologetic and uncompromising on how it deals with the characters. Characters we expect to survive turn into zombies. Good guys get disposed of while the bad guys continue to terrorize. For all the nightmarish ride the series takes us through, it ends on a positive, hopeful, humane note. Due to the popularity, there is a high probability of another season. Till then, stay safe, stay away from zombies, don’t turn into one, and yes, whatever happens, don’t lose your intestines😉