Any zombie story goes to be extra related in a post-pandemic world. Or mid-pandemic, relying on the place you reside. But one thing tells me that the lowkey apocalyptic occasion we’re all collectively surviving would be the much-needed shot of adrenaline that the style has been in want of for over a decade. There’s solely a lot extra mileage filmmakers will be capable of get out of our newfound paranoia for contagious sicknesses. But what subsequent? What occurs after we take a look at the horror on our screens and shrug, having skilled one thing a lot worse ourselves?
The pandemic shall be to zombie storytelling what the Donald Trump presidency was to political satire—a close to extinction-level occasion that calls for a inventive realignment. The final time that the zombie style witnessed such an overhaul was when Edgar Wright urged that it might be humorous. Now, it’s time to overhaul as soon as once more.
But All of Us Are Dead is not the present that is going to take the style to the subsequent degree. At least not for 4 episodes, throughout which it performs (largely) by the foundations. Or so it makes you suppose. But a twist in episode 5 is one thing that I’ve by no means seen accomplished earlier than in a zombie story. Not solely is it a frighteningly plausible illustration of the coronavirus pandemic, however a well-timed mid-season increase to a present that did not really want one. You had been already invested, All of Us Are Dead appears to be saying, now buckle up for the house stretch.
The 12-episode Korean sequence, out on Netflix, zeroes in on the social inequalities that had been uncovered by the pandemic, whereas on the similar time providing robust commentary on the toxicity of the teenage expertise. It is, in spite of everything, set inside essentially the most Darwinian of all playgrounds, and the iciest of all societal snowglobes—highschool. It’s a constantly gripping and imminently bingeable present that sticks to the syllabus, after which goes forward and wins brownie factors for extracurricular actions, too.
Zombies have been proven to have a level of sentience up to now—Zack Snyder did it simply final yr—however not fairly like this. “What if everyone in the world gets infected except us,” one teenage character wonders after a few episodes. “Then we’ll be in the minority, and minorities have a way of getting extinct.”
The pilot episode is superb. It deftly units up plot threads that begin making sense solely hours later. But as a result of every thing has been so fastidiously mapped out, the resolutions are immensely satisfying. The present additionally makes it fairly clear very early on that loss of life is an actual eventuality that may strike most characters, no matter whether or not they’ve been positioned as protagonists, considered one of whom is the college jock Soo-hyeok, who saunters in like he is Brad Pitt arriving for a Vogue photoshoot. He has a crush on the enigmatic Nam-ra, who was ‘elected’ class president as a result of his mother and father bribed the college. Soo-hyeok’s greatest pal is Cheong-san, who harbors emotions for his childhood pal On-ja, whom he treats as one of many guys, in a basic case of sweet sixteen deflection.
These are the 4 characters with whom you spend essentially the most time, and fortunately, they are not an unbearable bunch. For occasion, All of Us Are Dead would have been nearly unimaginable to observe had it been populated by the high-schoolers from HBO’s Euphoria. Hilariously, regardless that the youngsters on this present are across the similar age as those in Euphoria, cigarettes are solely ever talked about as soon as, when the characters make a giant deal out of it after considered one of them confesses to being a smoker.
In a approach, All of Us Are Dead is form of the right marriage of the messed-up Korean New Wave that started twenty years in the past, and the extra healthful BTS-fuelled pop-culture juggernaut that it’s largely perceived as now. The present could be very violent, and in addition fairly indignant at adults of all sizes and shapes (for chewing up and spitting out the planet like bubble gum and leaving future generations to scrape it off their sneakers). But additionally it is humorous, and when it desires to be, genuinely heartfelt.
Nothing is extra transferring, for example, than the story of the person who ‘created’ the virus. He is, like possibly three different characters within the present, a ‘villainous’ presence. But such is the power of the writing that you simply will not instantly be capable of determine who I’m speaking about. They’re simply individuals, pushed to the sting by a standard motivator—survival. A thematically related concept, you’d agree, for a present a few zombie apocalypse.
And as a result of All of Us Are Dead takes its time—lots of its 12 episodes run at over an hour lengthy—it permits itself some asides that you simply’d usually would not count on in a narrative like this. In an early episode, for instance, the trapped youngsters not solely have a frank dialogue about the place they’ll go quantity two, however band collectively to arrange a makeshift rest room the place they’re hiding out.
At any given second, author Cheon Seong-il juggles five-to-six separate subplots, none of that are boring. Nor are all of them set inside the college. Among essentially the most fascinating is the one which contains a heroic detective who goes on a mission to retrieve a laptop computer that may maintain the important thing to everybody’s survival. Along the best way, he picks up an overzealous YouTuber, a comically cowardly ‘chowkidaar’ and a few kids, considered one of whom is a new child. In one other world, they’d have been our protagonists.
But All of Us Are Dead intentionally frames the apocalypse from the angle of youngsters, as a result of regardless that the politicians and armed forces chiefs won’t realise it, their days are numbered. They will not have to wash up their mess. The youngsters will, and they’re most actually not all proper.
All of Us Are Dead
Creator – Chun Sung-il
Cast – Yoon Chan-young, Park Ji-hoo, Cho Yi-hyun, Park Solomon, Yoo In-soo
Rating – 4.5/5
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
