All of Us Are Dead - is quite a wordy title for a Netflix show about a group of Korean high school students trapped in ground zero of a zombie virus inadvertently released in their school. With hundreds of their infected classmates keeping them in and an increasingly desperate military making the arrival of help less and less likely, the group must find a way to get to safety before they succumb to the virus, the hunger or the growing tension between themselves as they fight for their lives.
While definitely not an original premise for a show, its execution showed a remarkable amount of cleverness, with the idea of zombies already established - they even reference the film Train to Busan, a Korean zombie film from 2016 that I highly recommend if you haven't seen it already. Even when the virus evolves in new and unexpected ways, the group adapts to the information pretty quickly, meaning we don't have to tread the same tired ground that the zombie genre tends to bring.
This doesn't trivialise the zombies, however. As a group of teenagers with little to no weapons or survival experience, there is a constant peril whenever they have to travel through corridors or open spaces, and whenever they come up with a plan, it is just as likely to fail than succeed.
I also commend the way this show can shift tones, from the awkward teen romances you'd see in a typical high-school k-drama, to certain characters suddenly becoming total badasses when the need arises, to dark humour when people are oblivious to the imminent danger they are in and the sorrow of finding loved ones among the zombies.
Few shows try to straddle so many tones, and of those few do it as effortlessly as this.
What I also found interesting here was parallels, both subtle and or otherwise, to the coronavirus situation of the past two years, from the confinement of small groups in empty classrooms, paranoia of who is and isn't infected in a situation rapidly spiralling out of control and being compelled into harsh quarantine procedures.
However, it doesn't try to make much of a statement on real world events, instead adopting these parallels to help us empathise with the characters in ways we typically don't in conventional zombie stories, tapping into the personal experiences of the audience in a truly unique way rather than manipulating them to make a vacuous social or political statement that compromises the entertainment value.
This show has several drawbacks that come along with its fun - for one, there are a few too many plot threads that get introduced that get far too much setup than the payoff they give. Typically this comes in the form of giving the audience a false hope or a new perspective on the events playing out, but this can lead it to be hard to follow in the first half, and frustrating in the second.
For comparison, there are twelve episodes for All of Us Are Dead, but twelve over the span of two seasons for Kingdom, nine for Squid Game and six for Hellbound. It doesn't have the pacing issues of something like Luke Cage or The Punisher, but it is easy to make the claim that there are a couple too many episodes, and that certain plot threads could do with being streamlined for conciseness.
Additionally, there is a mutation in the virus that turns many typical zombie rules on their heads, which leaves me puzzled as what to make of them. It generates good drama, but it also makes the story rely more on conveniences and seemingly random chance that the events play out the way they do. My opinions on this inclusion are mixed, and it isn't story-shattering, but I suppose you'll just have to make of it what you will.
What does this show promise? A tense zombie survival story that isn't afraid to have fun with its cast and premise, as well as throw some gut-punches and poignancy at you. Does it deliver? Yes, in spades, although it does have a few issues here and there. It gets a solid 8 out of 10
8 OUT OF 10
SPOILER SECTION
Ok, so to start with my highlights of the show. The outbreak in the school over the first and second episodes was awesome - particularly the brawl in the canteen, which managed to be as badass as it was chaotic, crossing the single-take fights of Daredevil with the zombie-fuelled desperation of Train to Busan, with characters who fight, get bitten and reanimate in all in frame as the protagonists release the lost cause of the situation and make their escape.
The fights that Cheong-San and Lee Su-Hyeok, and even On-Jo's fireman father, have with the zombies were glorious - who would have thought of spin-kicking numerous zombies to buy time, jumping from bookshelf to bookshelf while fighting Gwi-Nam or just power-hosing them them down the stairs like a champ. Maybe it isn't realistic for these guys to do this, but damn if it isn't spectacular to watch.
Speaking of Gwi-Nam though, could that guy stop getting thrown off rooftops? Essentially, he was already a homicidal bully but after losing to Cheong-San and supposedly dying, the virus brings him back - equipped with heightened abilities, a zombifying bite and nigh immortality, his injuries just popping back in place as he single-mindedly hunts for Cheong-San and the group.
A running joke started between my brother and I after the second time he was thrown off of the roof - that he basically became some periodic boss-fight like Bowser in Mario 64 - just throw him off the roof and you'll be safe for a couple of episodes. His was a plot thread I would have condensed, making the final confrontation that more impactful by having him attack and bite Cheong-San just before the plan to escape the missile range could be brought about - I felt his more frequent inclusion prior to that cheapened his presence and more personal conflict with Cheong-San himself.
The idea of some people becoming half-zombie rather than fully turning is interesting, giving the military a genuine reason to avoid directly rescuing the students when the opportunity presented itself, but it does seem like a convenient way of setting up Gwi-Nam as a main villain and saving Nam-Ra when she gets bitten by him. Essentially, if there is a random chance of not fully turning, it feels like a bit of a cop-out, even with the drama of the group being unable to fully trust Nam-Ra giving in to her cannibalistic urges (her confession to the group about not having friends when sitting around the fire was very touching though).
However, I did find many of the deaths toward the end to feel quite rushed - without the either payoff or setup to make them quite as powerful as the writers intended, from On-Jo's father travelling for numerous episodes to help his daughter only to die five minutes later for seemingly little reason. Cheong-San's sacrifice was a fitting conclusion to his arc, but him getting bitten so suddenly by Gwi-Nam felt rushed, and Woo-Jin's death, while more satisfying than On-Jo's father's, was one last gut-punch while the end was already in sight, picked off by just a few zombie stragglers.
The ending was a weird note as well - bittersweet considering everyone who made it out had to spend months in that cramped evacuation camp but were able to begin to make peace with the past and try to move on with their lives, but that the "hambies" outside were beginning to form their own society in the ruins, meaning Nam-Ra would still be happy.
This begs so many questions - Do hambies have to eat human flesh, or are just compelled to? Either way, their supply of fresh food would have run out by this point in the timeline, so they'd have to be walking corpses, and then the future doesn't look very bright for Nam-Ra after all. How does the military not discover the dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of people living the quarantine zone, and what would be the fallout? As you can see, it is best the show doesn't answer these, but I felt a focus on On-Jo would have made for a more impactful final scene.
Anyway, those are just my ramblings. On the whole, I really enjoyed the show. If you have seen it, please leave a like and a comment. See you on the next one!
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