I have always been interested in how zombie movies, even as they scare audiences, also prove versatile in their ability to provide relevant social commentary – even with only limited tweaks to the basic formula – so I was instantly intrigued when I saw a trailer for the first season of Kingdom on Netflix. Produced in South Korea and released in 2019 the series imagines a zombie outbreak in feudal Korea. This struck me as a great premise, and I quickly devoured all the episodes (no zombie pun intended).
Netflix, doing what it does, immediately suggested that I watch Rampant, a 2018 South Korean film about, well, exactly the same thing. I felt that Rampant played too fast and loose with the “rules” that its zombies followed, but I really enjoyed both productions and believe they are good additions to the zombie genre. The horror was appropriately horrifying. The production quality and cinematography were both excellent. They offered up arresting visual imagery. And I felt that the interplay between the feudal context and the zombie contagion worked well in both plots.
The plots were also strikingly similar in certain respects. Without giving too much away, both plots feature heroes, in the form of princes, who are not particularly keen to lead, who do not covet the throne. However, each comes to believe that they must accept and take steps to claim that throne all the same. Circumstances, concern for their people, and love of country force them into it. Both plots also identify villains in the form of power-hungry and manipulative court ministers, who cynically try to manage the zombie epidemics for their own gain.
As I watched, I was struck by the fact that these were the first zombie epics I had seen where questions of political leadership were so integral to the plots. While there are elements of political decision-making in World War Z (both the book and the movie) most zombie tales seem to take place in a state of anarchy or something close to it. Of course, leadership questions are still inherent to a meltdown of political structures, but those questions become more localized. Can you trust the people with whom you just fell in? Is the leader of the anti-zombie compound doing sketchy things in the name of security? Are we still bound to follow our orders?
However, in both Kingdom and Rampant, things have not yet fallen into that post-apocalyptic state, and it seems that the motives and obligations of the royal court are thematic concerns. I found that interesting. Both projects seem to express a wish for leaders that are not overly fond of power, a wish for leaders that care for the common people even as they retain a position of privilege, and a wish for leaders that stand against a lust for self-serving, self-aggrandizing power.
Of course, the idea of the reluctant leader is not new. Kevin Costner’s character is reticent in The Postman. Mad Max never really warms to the idea of leadership in The Road Warrior (or its sequels). However, this felt distinct from the “who will lead this motley band of survivors” question, and it caught my attention that two contemporary projects from South Korea chose to bend the zombie genre in that same direction.
I know almost nothing about South Korean politics. However, I know that when I watched Kingdom and Rampant I felt that South Koreans today must be concerned about political leaders who lust for power, that they must fear leaders who are willing to sacrifice their people in order to attain (or keep) that power. This could simply reflect concerns about the despot who sits to their north. However, South Korea is a capitalist democracy like the United States, and I found myself also wondering if Kingdom and Rampant might reflect anxiety about the logic of modern elections. In the United States, election campaigns continue to grow larger and more complex. They need more and more money. They start sooner (or never stop). Different constituencies are hungry for promises (again, no zombie pun intended). All these factors contribute to the sense that, to win an election, you have to really, really, really want it. Like, too much.
Are they seeing the same thing in other democratic nations? When zombie productions start fulfilling the wish for a reluctant political leader, one not excessively fond of the power that he or she wields, are they really asking: “How do we get that?” If that is the case, I predict that both the movie and the TV series might resonate with American viewers – well, at least those who are interested in subtitled zombie movies.
In addition, I plan to keep my eyes open for signs that American movies and television might be looking for plots of their own to fulfill the same wish for American audiences.
A postscript: several weeks after writing this article I watched Spiderman: Far From Home and felt like it was absolutely an American formulation of the desire for reluctant leadership that I discuss in the post above. Peter Parker is famously associated with the line: “With great power comes great responsibility” so I suppose this should not be particularly surprising, but even so I thought the idea was strikingly central to the plot. It is both worth watching and worth considering in terms of how it reflects these cultural concerns and desires.