Friday, March 29, 2024
FILM&DRAMA

Historical Zombie Drama Kingdom (Netflix 2019) Season 1

Season 2 of historical zombie drama Kingdom is now out on Netflix! I started watching it and then realised I couldn’t remember exactly what happened in Season 1! (Well, it has been a year since season 1 aired…)

Once I started watching season 2, I realised that there were some key points of the plot that I really needed to remember.

So, if you’re in the same boat, here’s a quick summary of the six episodes of season 1 with spoilers!

Related posts:

review of historical zombie drama Kingdom season 1

review of historical zombie drama Kingdom season 2

The drama takes on a whole new meaning these days with the coronavirus spreading around the world – more on that later in Series 2 review…

SETTING

The story is set soon after the Imjin Wars (1592-1598) when the Joseon people are struggling through famine.

The problems begin at Gyeongbok Palace in the capital of Hanyang (Seoul). Later we find ourselves in the port of Dongnae (now part of Busan in the south) and Mungyeong Saejae, a main mountain pass.

Mungyeong Saejae is about 3 hours from Seoul in Gyeongsang Province. And it was the path that everyone including traders and scholars (taking the national civil service exam) had to travel along when they went to the capital.

historical zombie drama kingdom season 1, Crown Prince  Lee chang

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EPISODE 1

The problem starts with politics and the hunger for power.

Like every sageuk drama set in the palace, there is a power-struggle for the throne. Our hero is Lee Chang (Ju Ji hoon). He is the Crown Prince, but as the son of a concubine, his position is not safe: the king’s new young queen is pregnant.

The queen’s father is Prime Minister Cho Hak-ju (Ryu Seung-ryong) and the baddie of the story. He is prepared to do anything to make sure that his daughter gives birth to a son before the king dies, so he can replace Lee Chang as Crown Prince (and more importantly Prime Minister Cho can have all the power. Boo).

Nobody is allowed to see the king who is ‘ill’.

There is definitely something strange going on… The king suddenly rises from his sick bed and mauls to death the doctor’s young assistant who has come to treat him!

This is a secret though… 

Lee Chang is suspicious and insists on going to question the king’s doctor who has now returned to his clinic in Dongnae. It’s a long way to Dongnae from Hanyang – about 300 km (Dongnae is now part of Busan but at this time it was the main port of the southeast.)

He sets off with his unenthusiastic guard Moo-young, but they have no idea that they are riding into a nightmare. 

In Dongnae, Doctor Lee Seung-hui arrives at his clinic with the corpse of the mauled assistant. He plans to bury him there. But the patients at the clinic are starving and one of the patients (Young-shin, an ex-soldier) uses the dead body to make soup… (I didn’t forget that bit of the story 😱…)

Female doctor Seo Bi (Bae Doona) doesn’t eat the soup (thank goodness) as she is too selfless and concerned about feeding the patients. Then she sees a finger floating around in the broth and realises that this is not ‘deer’ soup after all.

While Seo-bi and Yeong-shin have a row about the ethics of cooking people for dinner, the patients start throwing up and choking and generally looking pretty grim. 

Next thing we know the soup-eaters are climbing all over each other in one great big gnaw-fest munching way at each other’s bodies.

Oh it’s absolutely horrific to see, but it’s the sound effects that make this truly horrible.

And so the strange disease is brought to the south from the capital.

A scene with Crown Prince Lee Chang in Korean historical zombie drama Kingdom Season 1

EPISODE 2 

Lee Chang and Moo-young arrive in Dongnae at Doctor Lee’s clinic. But it’s eerily quiet and boarded up. And lots of blood on bamboo spears. 

Breaking down the door they find corpses everywhere.

Meanwhile, wimpy magistrate Cho Beom-pal (a member of Prime Minister Cho’s Haewon Cho clan) is celebrating his new position with a banquet (wasting food when people are starving). However, the celebrations come to an abrupt end with the news of the bodies.

Lee Chang and Moo-young hear that there is a survivor (Seo-bi) from the clinic and that she is up at the ‘frozen lake’ where ‘resurrection plants’ grow. The plants can supposedly bring people back to life from the dead – and the doctor used some on ‘someone’ in the capital…. 

It’s bad news for Lee Chang. Seo-bi tells him that the doctor was also a soup victim.

The bodies have been moved from the clinic and laid out neatly outside the magistrates office. Seo-bi arrives and desperately tries to warn the government officers of the coming danger – the monsters wake up at sunset. 

But they simply think she’s crazy. As you would. (They didn’t believe Yeong-shin either and arrested him for suspected murder)

The suspense is killing me as the day gets darker and the straw blankets start to twitch…! I love it.

The magistrate is a fool but I like his comical character. He’s not going to be the hero in the drama, that’s for sure. But he has a dorky charm. He’s not bad, just weak. 

Meanwhile Lee Chang has gone to the clinic to find Doctor Lee’s medical journal which hopefully will shed light on his father’s condition.

But a military-official from the palace (Prime Minister Cho’s son) is waiting for him. They get into a heated argument and a sword fight ensues until a strange banging is heard from inside a large crate. 

Who should pop out but a ZOMBIFIED DOCTOR LEE!

In the kerfuffle, the guard gets bitten, but Lee Chang escapes.

That was lucky. 

A scene from Korean historical zombie drama Kingdom Season 1

EPISODE 3 

In Dongnae chaos reigns as night falls and the zombies wake up – the officials are gobsmacked – well, they were warned!

First there’s the horrible munching sounds of the zombies who have woken up at sunset. The officials run for their lives after desperately trying to unlock the prison cells. (I can’t work out if they are trying to selflessly free the prisoners or selfishly lock themselves in the cells!

The scenes in the cells are fun as the zombies ravage the prisoners. But oh the horror of being in a confined space with a zombie. 

The magistrate proves again that he is no hero as he cowers behind Seo-bi who manages to protect them both. 

We’ve got a full orchestra now with a particularly dramatic trombone and wind section playing as Lee Chang sprints for his life and jumps into the lake to escape the zombies. (seems they dislike water)

Meanwhile at the palace, the young queen looks on as the king is enjoying another midnight feast – a poor unsuspecting peasant, no doubt. Prime Minister Cho wants to feed the king until the heir is born.

The queen is under pressure to have a son, so looks disturbed to see blood on her sock. The maid secretly burns all her clothes. 

Back in Dongnae, the sun has risen and the monsters go to sleep. Phew! 

At the magistrate’s office the story of how the patients became infected – through eating human soup – is revealed to everyone’s horror.

It’s a problem because the magistrate can’t bury the bodies as they will simply rise from the graves. They must burn the bodies or cut their heads off. But the aristocrats are not having this – it goes against Confucian teaching.  

Worried of a backlash from the upper classes, they decide to only burn the corpses of the peasants! Duh!

Luckily, Lee Chang arrives and orders them to burn ALL the bodies. The aristocrats can’t complain now but they are NOT happy about it.  

Enter Lord Ahn Hyeon a former leader (who can challenge Prime Minister Cho) currently on his mountain mourning the death of his mother.

Time for a well-earned comic interlude… 

The wimpy magistrate summons Seo-bi to him to declare his ‘love’ for her. But oblivious to his meaning, she is concerned that he looks flushed! And takes his pulse. This reveals that he has an STD, gonorea. hahahah

I’m not usually keen on the comic scenes in serious drama, but this was priceless. 

Back to business…

Lee Chang reads the doctor’s notes and realises that his father has become a zombie. He also guesses what Prime Minister Cho is up to and decides he must meet with Lord Ahn in Sangju. 

But at the river bank, crowds of locals are waiting for a boat to escape from Dongnae. There is only one boat and it’s full of government officials! But they’re going to regret their selfishness, because one of the noble ladies has brought a large chest with her onto the boat. Large enough for a body…

A scene from Korean historical zombie drama Kingdom Season 1

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EPISODE 4 

Full of action. It’s a race against time as Lee Chang takes command and orders everyone to get back to the clinic asap. They have to hurry and barricade themselves in before sunset.

On the way they see creepy bodies lying around the mountainside just waiting for sunset. Oh it’s exciting as time is running out and the zombies start waking up! HURRY!

Lee Chang wants to go to Sangju and Young-sin (ex-soldier and corpse cook) leads the way. Lee Chang is popular with the people, but guards arrive to arrest him for treason. They fire arrows over the wall into the clinic killing the peasants that Lee Chang has just ironically helped to save.  

Back at the palace Prime Minister Cho is fuming at the sight of his son’s decapitated head in a box. The messenger is lying dead on the floor. (don’t shoot the messenger!)

Emergency smoke signals are causing concern at the palace. Prime Minister Cho finally allows the leaders to see the gruesome chained king-monster. Then he arrests them for treason as they announced that the king is dead when he clearly is still ‘alive.’ (I think Prime Minister Cho is a sociopath or psychopath or something…

prime minister cho in a scene from Korean historical zombie drama Kingdom Season 1

EPISODE 5 

This episode moves back and forth as the zombie plague spreads through the country. 

The guard Moo-young is concerned about Young-sin who is accompanying them to Sangju. He has a fake name and ID and could be a chakho – tiger hunter – fierce soldiers who do anything to survive. 

(Young-sin remains a mystery. Later he spits at a monument commemorating  the battle of the Unpo Wetland and the victory of governor Ahn Hyeon of Gyeongsang who defeated 30,000 Japanese soldiers with 500 soldiers. In his village there are lots of graves.)

On the boat, the selfish officials meet a gruesome end when the zombie nobleman wakes up. When the boat is found, there is no-one on board – only the aftermath of blood.

Then Lee Chang et al stumble on a village where the locals are feasting on rice (even though there is a famine). They have clearly looted the wrecked zombie boat. A crime.

Lee Chang just wants to know where they buried the bodies. But the villagers are afraid of being punishment for stealing and turn on Lee Chang with weapons. 

Self preservation is a theme running through the drama. But I have more sympathy for the peasants who are simply trying to survive.

A fight ensues. It’s sunset and the ground starts to shift beneath them as the monsters wake up.  But then Lord Ahn and his men arrive to help. Seo-bi thinks it’s odd that he is not surprised by the situation!

Flashback to Lee Chang’s childhood: Lord Ahn was his teacher at the palace. 

In Hanyang,  Prime Minister Cho does an experiment…

At the prison they feed an inmate flesh from an infected person and the PM watches as the prisoner turns into a zombie. He realises that they must stop the spread of the disease to Hanyang! 

The Queen announces that she will take the position of Queen Regent since the King is incapacitated. The armies have been dispatched to stop the zombie plague from spreading.

In an undisclosed location, pregnant widows are being looked after before they give birth. (I know hunger is a theme of the drama, but the sound of eating is a bit much) They are fed well but have no idea who is looking after them. But I think we do. Intriguingly Moo-young’s wife is also there. 

Messages arrive at the North Gate of Sangju that armies have left from Hanyang for Munjeong Saejae. The first gate of Yeongnam at Mungyeong Saejae is sealed by the army between east and west Gyeongsang. 

The zombies are coming  Kingdom Season 1

EPISODE 6

The magistrate of Sangju thinks the gate has been closed because of Lee Chang and wants to hand him over. He doesn’t know about the zombie situation. 

Lee Chang is staying with Lord Ahn. Moo-young senses danger. But Lee Chang is calm. 

The palace guards arrive to arrest the ‘traitor’ Lee Chang. They gather at his quarters and he seems to be trapped within the walls. But they are the ones who are trapped. Lord Ahn storms in and his guards appear on the rooftops and pelt the hapless palace guards with arrows.

The magistrate of Sangju refuses to open the gate leaving the people outside to die. But within the fortress walls they are also trapped and will die of starvation.

Up north at the palace, the queen has a bath and reveals that her baby bump is fake. She must have lost the baby. Meanwhile babies are being born to the young widows. Looks like the queen has made a Plan B.  

Down south, Lee Chang starts thinking strategically. The zombies are afraid of fire and water. The south of Sangju is surrounded by water, so the people set traps in the ground for the zombies around the wetlands. They set fires and must stand guard all night until the sunrise when they are safe.

A servant’s horse arrives back from surveying the situation. But only the hand holding the reigns is left – the rest of the servant must have been taken by the zombies. They are coming…

Prime Minister Cho arrives at the gate of Mungyeong Saejae. He has brought a crate with something (someone) banging around inside… 

Lee Chang and his men make it to sunrise and believe they are safe.

But over at Frozen Valley Seo-bi and the magistrate discover there are zombies running around in the daytime. Usually they sleep in the day and come out at night. Seo-bi realises that it isn’t the daylight that bothers the zombies. It’s the temperature. They need cold temperatures. And winter is coming. Oh no.

The scary creatures appear again.

Prim Minister Cho watches with satisfaction. You thought it was over? It’s only just beginning…

it’s an exciting end. And I’m ready for Series 2!

Related posts:

review of historical zombie drama Kingdom season 1

review of historical zombie drama Kingdom season 2

see more from dramasrok about life in Korea on Facebook Pinterest and Instagram 

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