Kingdom (Netflix Original)

Kingdom Official Trailer HD Netflix

Kingdom (Korean: 킹덤; RR: 'Kingdeom') is a 2019 South Korean political period supernatural thriller web television series written by Kim Eun-hee and directed by Kim Seong-hun. It is Netflix's first original Korean series,^[a] which premiered on January 25, 2019.

The series is adapted from the webcomic series The Kingdom of the Gods, which was authored by Kim Eun-hee and drawn by Yang Kyung-il.

The series was positively reviewed, and renewed for a second season set to be released on March 13, 2020.

Premise

Set in Korea's Joseon period, a few years after the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598), the first season depicts the story of Crown Prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon), who becomes embroiled in a coup/political conspiracy and is forced to embark upon a mission to investigate the spread of a mysterious undead plague that has beset the current emperor and the country's southern provinces. The story starts with a notice on a billboard, claiming the king of Joseon is dead and the crown prince should be crowned immediately as the new king. However, inside the palace, the king is known to be severely sick and has been secretly treated for the past 10 days. No one was allowed to visit the king, not even the crown prince himself. Late at night, the crown prince sneaks out to visit his father, wanting to know the truth. But instead of his father, he encountered the silhouette of a beastly monster. Accompanied by the physician Seo-Bi (Bae Doo-na), the enigmatic Yeong-Shin (Kim Sung-kyu), and his personal guard Moo-Young (Kim Sang-ho), Prince Lee-Chang must prevent the advance of the plague towards his home capital of Hanyang (present-day Seoul) while addressing the sinister coup masterminded by Minister Cho Hak-ju (Ryu Seung-ryong) and his family aimed towards his deposition from the throne.

The second season centers on the advancement of the plague across several provinces. In the lead-up to halting the outbreak, a devastating revelation ensues at Sangju. Upon the arrival of the winter season, the undead hordes now roam freely due to a change in ambient temperature. Fearing the ramifications of an imminent invasion, Prince Lee-Chang attempts to garner support from his allies to stop the undead and reclaim his right to the throne. Unbeknownst to the Prince, another conspiracy for political gain is brewing within the corrupt Haewon Cho Clan. As Queen Consort Cho (Kim Hye-jun ) schemes to steal a male newborn to cement as heir to the royal family, she further orchestrates another strategy to control the undead as additional armed forces to bolster her rise to power at Hanyang. As calamity looms among the living, only one question remains. Can the Prince save his people in time and end the political turmoil at the capital or will the plague mark the end of the Joseon dynasty?

Reception

The first season received critical acclaim from critics and the audience. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 89% approval rating with an average rating of 8/10 based on 9 reviews.

Aloysius Low of CNET praised the cinematography of the first season, stating that "shots cleverly linger on certain scenes to draw out the impressive sets, while adeptly tracking the action during sword fights or zombie attacks." Renaldo Matadeen from CBR mentioned in a positive review of the first season, that "Kingdom makes even bolder sociopolitical statements than The Walking Dead does. Sure, the AMC series waxes on about class and elitism, but Kingdom wades deep into governance and the divide between the rulers and the suffering populace." Jonathan Christian from The Playlist complimented the series by adding that "this series is risky programming for people who appreciate the unusual, gory, but imaginative, things in life. Considering the over-saturated state of the market, it is refreshing to see Netflix taking chances."^[35] Joel Keller from News AU recommended the first season in their review of the series by stating that "Kingdom dares to show that zombies aren't just a 20th and 21st-century phenomenon, and we applaud that kind of creative storytelling."

While reviewing the first season, Kate Sanchez from But Why Tho? declared in a positive review that "Kingdom offers a period drama, a zombie show, and a tense atmosphere that will keep you watching until you're done with this season. In an over-saturate sub-genre, this show takes common horror tropes and rewrites zombie rules for Joseon Korea in a way that reinvigorates my love of the sub-genre."^[37] Michael Pementel from Bloody Disgusting praised the series, stating that "Kingdom is by far one of the most compelling works to come out of the zombie genre" and further adding that "thanks to strong acting, gripping action and drama, gruesome visuals, and an overall powerful narrative, Kingdom is a must watch for horror fans."^[38]

Depiction of Infected

How they look like in the day. They are indistinguishable from normal corpses.

The zombies depicted in the series appear to be mindless, undead corpses and have a heightened level of aggression towards the uninfected. The infection caused their skin to darken and eyes to turn milky white. They spread either by bites or consumption of contaminated flesh--it was shown that cooking the contaminated flesh before eating can still lead to zombification. Exposure to the infected's bodily fluids to the mucous membrane (Eyes, mouth, nose) won't cause zombification.

During the zombification process, the victim's body will start to violently spasm and their irises turn white. They will make animalistic sounds and begin to bleed heavily from their mouth. Before full transformation is complete, the infected's limbs and body also move in disjointed and jerky manners. Noises during these scenes imply that their bones are either cracking or breaking.

Zombies appear to have little interest in eating humans and are more focused on spreading the infection. They don't devour any bodies whole and often leave the bitten to undergo symptoms of zombification.

Early on in the series, they are observed to be nocturnal creatures and are strongly adverse to the sun. When the sun rises, they will immediately begin to seek shelter, be it under the silts of homes, wells or caves. Once they find a shaded area, they will drop into a state of motionless sleep, where to most people they look like normal dead bodies. Only once the sun begins to set, they slowly reawaken themselves.

Later in the series, it's shown that it isn't the sun that they're adverse to but the heat instead. When it begins to get cold outside, zombies are shown to remain active even during the day.

Traits

Strengths:

• Agility and endurance: In some scenes, they were able to bring down a full-size horse and nearly match the speed of one for short, sustained periods of time.
• Short incubation period: It takes about 15 seconds to 1 minute for a victim to turn into an undead zombie. Making them effectively at multiplying and overwhelming urban centres. However, this can vary. In Season 2 Episode 6, one main character was able to resist the infection for over 2 minutes.

• Durability: It has been observed that even if their internal organs are exposed or took a direct stab from a sword to their chest, this doesn't kill them.
• Heightened sense of smell: A fresh drop of blood from an uninfected human can attract other infected bodies many meters away. [1]

Weakness:

• Decapitation: They're capable of taking damage that would be fatal to most men. It was found that decapitation or destruction of the head is the most effective in killing them.
• Aversion to water bodies: It has been observed they will generally avoid travelling on water bodies. They have no ability to swim, and when they are pushed into deeper waters, they will immediately sink to the bottom.
• Heat: They have been observed to immediately seek shelter when the day begins to break in order to escape the heat of direct sunlight. As a result, during spring or summer, they are only active during the day and hibernate at night.
• Fire: Fire can be used to keep infected at bay.
• Blood: Blood can be used to distract or bait the zombies to behave in certain ways. Although dangerous, using fresh blood on rooftops is shown to be an effective means to lure zombies if needed.

Reference

1. Kingdom - Season 2 - Episode 1