The powers that be cover up a plague outbreak to retain power while the rightful protector of the people tries to solve it. No, I’m not referencing the US Presidential Election in 2020, I am describing the South Korean television series, Kingdom. Think Game of Thrones without the sex or nudity, more economical and more satisfying. Yes, the morality and narrative conventions may be less realistic, but it is the perfect escape for a year dominated by shocking real life plot twists while retaining enough dire consequences to suit my sensibilities.
Kingdom attracted my attention because I am into zombies, period pieces and South Korean films and television series. The first two seasons, which are six episodes each, are available on Netflix so I put the television series in my queue, but the queue is quite large so theoretically it could have sat there indefinitely. Once I realized that Seong-hun Kim, whose film, Tunnel, I enjoyed, directed seven of the twelve episodes, I moved it up the queue and was not disappointed. If I was not an adult with competing responsibilities, I would have watched it in a single weekend.
Kingdom uses the zombie plague as a metaphor for the inhumane, cannibalistic policies of the upper class that trickle down and destroy those below them. The voracious, grotesque appetite of zombies is just a natural consequence of the dangerous policies of those in power who are completely blind to the fact that there is no point in ruling over the dead and seem completely untroubled at the prospect of joining them. The chasm between the haves and have nots has consequences that do not make a distinction of good from bad fortune.
Naturally we have an intrepid hero, Crown Prince Lee Chang. In the vein of Guy Ritchie classism, we want to root for a blue blood and the rightful heir, but we also want him to be a man of the people who transcends class and can get down with ordinary folk. Prince transforms from a purple clad, flowing gown, hands never dirty intellectual shut up among his dusty books to a shaken, but resolute leader, man of action always on the road, willing to do anything to live up to his ideals and gradually becoming quite the swordsman. This Prince is apparently playing against type in South Korean culture because they usually come perfect, and he is clearly a work in progress as are we all. He combines idealistic nobility with common sense and efficiency.
Even with such a simple moral distinction, Kingdom finds ways to be subversive in depicting the power struggle. The Haewon Cho clan and the Prince kept surprising me in the first episode in their complicated dance with truth and lies. While the Prince is more predictable, the clan is not as utterly corrupt as they appear though their boundaries are puzzling and diverse. They draw lines in counterintuitive ways.
Even though I am personally unfamiliar with South Korea, I was mostly able to follow Kingdom without many questions, but I think that it would have been helpful if I had more geographical and Korean dynastic kingdom knowledge. For instance, why would the king put his only son in a precarious position by marrying such obviously shady people? Hanyang is Seoul and where most of the royal family resides. Gyeongsang is a port city near Busan, which you may be familiar with if you watched the South Korean zombie film, Train to Busan. The series is heavily influenced by the Japanese invasion of Korea as a historical backdrop. I think that it is set in the nineteenth century. I do not have to understand history to be a fan of alternate history stories. I love the infusion of horror into a period political thriller. A stylish, over budget costume piece gets drenched in blood!
If you are familiar with zombies, the mythology in Kingdom will lull you into thinking that you as the viewer know what to expect. Part of the pleasure of the series is knowing more than the characters who have mostly neither encountered a zombie nor have the benefit of modern technology to entertain themselves with such diversions, but eagle-eyed viewers will anticipate some of the swerves when they come. If you want a hint, think old school vampire mythology meets biology. I was originally supposed to watch this series with a group of four other women. The zombies immediately grossed out three out of four of those women. One woman, who is squeamish when it comes to horror, did not think that the practical effects were scary and thought they were humorous. I thought the gruesome aspects were solid, not cheap. As the series unfolds, the zombie population increases so if you are not into zombies, do not bother.
As an American watching a South Korean television series, it took me awhile to figure out which scenes were flashbacks and which were set in the present, but I do not think that this problem is unique to Kingdom. I have had this problem when watching other South Korean television series. I think that there is a lag with picking up visual cues when I am preoccupied with reading subtitles. Because each episode has its own rhythm to reflect the natural momentum of the story, and the format is not predictable, you will not be able to anticipate when a scene will be a flashback so you better pay attention to context! Eventually flashbacks are primarily used to reveal that a character knows more than we thought as we watched most of the episode so it gives us insight into the character’s thought process and teaches us how they play their cards.
If you are looking for romance, Kingdom is not for you. There are not many major women characters, and when they are, they are rarely if ever with their significant others. During a zombie outbreak, no one has time for such frivolities. The major women characters may be few, but they are memorable and play pivotal roles. Kingdom definitely passes the Bechdel test, and the final scene in season two teases introducing another mysterious woman character.
If you enjoy Kingdom as much as I did, you will be disappointed to find out that we cannot expect another episode except for a special sidequel, Kingdom: Ashin of the North, which will not be available until 2021. At least we know that Ashin is that mysterious woman. If you suffer from withdrawal, the only option is checking out the source material, the webcomic series, The Kingdom of the Gods, which Kim Eun-hee wrote and Yang Kyung-il drew, but good luck finding it. I only found the manga version, which has been translated into English. I do not read comics anyway so it was unlikely that I was going to read it, but I would have liked having the option.
I highly recommend Kingdom and think subtitles are a small price to pay for quality entertainment. If I had to complain, it would only be because I greedily gobbled it up before there was more on the horizon.
