Movie Review: Kingdom: Ashin of the North (2021)

Kingdom: Ashin of the North (2021) directed by Seong-hum Kim and written by Eun-hee Kim

In the world of the Korean historical zombie drama of Kingdom, this prequel story is set in the north of Joseon (the medieval kingdom that is now Korea). Japan has threatened invasion in the south so enemies in the north are emboldened, specifically the Pajeowi of Jurchen. They are a tribe that lives across the border though some of them moved into Joseon over a century ago. The Jurchen living in Joseon are accepted by neither the Pajeowi or Joseon, essentially making them orphans. When some Pajeowi are discovered dead in one of the kingdom's forests, blame is put on a tiger. 

Ashin is the daughter of the head of the "orphan" village. She's a young girl who has wandered into the forest. She's discovered something entirely different--an old temple with drawings showing a certain plant that can bring the dead back to life. She wants to cure her terminally-ill mother, but her efforts are swallowed up by the political situation. A Joseon leader tells the Pajeowi that the village is to blame for the deaths, so the Pajeowi burn down Ashin's village. She returns after finding the plant only to see every last member of her family and tribe wiped out. She goes to the Joseon leader and asks for revenge. He puts her off, letting her stay and do menial tasks for the military compound as she learns both how to fight and, eventually, what has really happened to her family. Her path of revenge is terrible, more so because she brings zombies into the mix.

The plot starts with a lot of political intrigue (much like the first two seasons of Kingdom), a little action, and minimal gore. By the final third of the story, the action is full-on, as is the gore. Ashin is an interesting character, morphing from an innocent and intelligent child into a Clint-Eastwoodesque silent avenger. The story fills a hole or two from the other narratives while it stands on its own (i.e. you don't need to watch the previous content to understand what is going on).

Recommended, though the gore level gets high. If you liked the other Kingdom series, you'll like this one-off special.

As I write this (December 2021), this is only available streaming on Netflix.

TV Review: Kingdom Season Two (2020)

Kingdom Season Two (2020) written by Eun-hee Kim, directed by Seong-hun Kim and In-je Park

See my review of Season One...beware, spoilers for the first season are naturally part of the review below!


The Crown Prince (Ji-Hoon Ju) has to lead his forces as the undead hordes become active during the day. He fights out of one fortification and then heads to the capital to assert his birthright and to stop the zombie outbreak from breaking out further. He keeps his friends, including his trusted bodyguard (Sang-ho Kim), with him even though one of them is a traitor. The doctor (Doona Bae) leaves the group when she finds a resurrection plant and struggles to find a cure.

Meanwhile, the Queen (Hye-jun Kim) continues her plot to keep the throne for herself and her clan, though she is more in it for herself. The clan just does the dirty work for her. The big shocking revelation, that she's faking the pregnancy (she was originally pregnant but lost the child in utero), explains why a lot of pregnant noble women have been gathered to her family's home. It's not so much to keep them safe as it is to wait for a male child to be born who can be subbed in as the new legitimate heir to the throne. Unfortunately, there's been a string of female infants, leading to murders. One of the women escapes and tells about the crimes, though she doesn't know about the Queen's situation. Some officials investigate, putting the Queen's status in jeopardy. She does some political maneuvering to keep herself in control.

Like season one, the show does a masterful job blending the royal succession drama and the zombie action and mayhem. The political situation is fascinating and the Crown Prince is very much an ideal hero and leader. He works hard to save the people, even putting his own life in jeopardy. The Queen is cool and calculating, just the sort of villain that is highly effective and a sharp contrast to the Crown Prince. The fights are exciting and well-filmed, with the gore being on the mild end of the zombie-genre spectrum.

I only had two problems. First, they give more details about how the zombie infection works, which invalidates a lot of the behaviors of the zombies beforehand. This problem is common to many zombie stories--technical details are almost never convincing. The other problem is the series wraps up the royal succession story very well but then tags on some further content that will let them make a third season which looks a lot less interesting. Maybe they can pull it off. I will give it a try if and when it comes out.

Recommended.

This is currently available on Netflix (as of June 2020).