Reaction Shot: Kingdom episode 1 (or: political drama with zombies!)

[spindizzy]

In case your corner of the internet wasn't like mine and spontaneously erupted about Kingdom a couple of months back, hear me out: it's a Joseon-era Korean political drama about the Crown Prince trying to seize control of the country after his father disappears, and then the zombie apocalypse starts. I am confusion and excitement in equal measure, because it's gorgeous. I believe it's based off a webcomic called The Kingdom of the Gods, but I could have that wrong.

(Also, this capslock was the thing I lost four thousand words of at the start of June and had a Fit of Despair over on twitter, so I'm really grateful that the 4tw people managed to save half of it!)

• Watching the opening sequence again now that I know what's going on is so different, because it's beautifully put together, and manages to be INCREDIBLY ominous without actually showing that much that's actually scary.


• LOOK AT THESE SETS, they're so good. They're so pretty and dramatic!


• "You must never look inside His Majesty's bedchamber." I assume that the kid is IMMEDIATELY going to look inside the bedchamber.


• Bless this kid, he does not understand what is going on by the look of it, but he's doing his best. ... And also has the right degree of "Nope, do not want to get closer to that noise.


• NOW BACK AWAY. STAY AWAY FROM THE CURTAIN. SERIOUSLY, PULL YOUR HANDS BACK.


• KID, COME ON, MOVE YOUR – OH FUCK


• We are five minutes in and have our first zombie victim. That's pretty good going considering I've seen zombie movies that don't have any show up for the first hour. (Pontypool, Overlord)


• "The king is dead. A new wind will blow." It's very poetic! I'm not surprised, just appreciative.


• The officials look SO DONE with this. SO DONE. Like "My soul has left my body and yet I still have to deal with you idiots" levels of done.


• "I shall annihilate their entire families. The same goes for those who did nothing while these were put up." ... Oh. Oh no. Oh this is a lot of judicial murder.


• Dude calmly and pricisely tearing a poster to strips while announcing the death of probably at least twenty people? Very much an aesthetic. Not a good thing, but an aesthetic. Wait, they're rounding up the scholars? All of them?


• They are literally kicking scholars through walls and dragging them from their homes, w o w.


• Okay, it's been ten days since the king "fell ill with smallpox." Hmm. I guess it's plausible then that he might have lived, because if I remember rightly there were circumstances where smallpox wasn't fatal? (This is based on having innoculations explained to me when I was like ten and a quick google coming back with "Smallpox had about a 70% survival rate", DEFINITELY don't quote me on this.)


• Cho Hak-ju and the Queen are the only ones to have seen the king in all that time? Hmmmm, that seems totally legit.


• Also, if he had SMALLPOX, surely THE QUEEN and THE GUY WHO IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY IN HIS ABSENCE should be the last people who should see him?! What if they get sick!


• "We received a report that eighty-nine scholars from institutions near Hanyang worked together to post these heinous notices." ... So they're torturing every scholar they have? Holy shit. Also the way he's phrasing this makes it sound like they've just been torturing these kids to soften them up, and this is the first time he's actually mentioned WHY it's happening.


• "Who are the real traitors of this nation?" MY DUDE NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO ENAGE IN PHILOSOPHY WHEN THEY LITERALLY HAVE YOU TIED TO A CHAIR, COME ON. I mean, respect to him for calling out the Haewon Cho clan WHILE BEING TORTURED, but SERIOUSLY.


• (Also, respect for them all not just instantly confessing, even falsely, for the chance to stop this madness. I guess they already know that it won't help.)


• "How do they differ from swine that eat faeces?" ... He's literally just saying "The most important people here EAT SHIT" and accusing them of vampirism TO THEIR FACES. and this character deserves a name so that we can honour him in fandom for the absolute chutzpah of this.


• Cho Hak-ju is SO OMINOUS, I love it. Like, everything about his introduction gives me shivers.


• "Then to whom are you referring by 'new wind'?" Crown Prince, now would be a good time to RUN.


• Meanwhile, the Crown Prince: literally kneeling outside the palace where his father has been sequestered like he's been there all day.


• These costumes are so gorgeous, and just! Look at the details of her SHOES!


• I mean, knowing what we know about the Crown Prince, the fact that he's here claiming filial piety is kind of amazing.


• ... The queen is one of those people who uses the truth to her advantage, isn't she? Because I guarantee to you she wouldn't cry a single tear if the Crown Prince also caught smallpox and died, but it gives her a cast-iron excuse as to why she can ban him from the palace.


• The way these two look at each other is SO GOOD. Like, there's entire layers of "You might be my step-mother but but I've been doing this longer than you," and "You have nothing, there's not a single card you can play to fluster me," in two seconds of gazing at each other.


• She uses politeness like a knife and I can respect that as a skill.


• Of course it starts raining at this point. Of course. (And of course the sky is still a beautiful bright blue.)


• The way that every servant lunges into the Crown Princes' path to stop him while not actually changing their order or position in the group is really well co-ordinated.


• He's not even LOOKING at them. Look at his eye-line, he's just yelling this into the air above them, while they're on their knees in the mud because they know that if they fail, they are going to die.


• That robe looks comfy, although I'm disappointed in him for flinging his fancy robe on the floor like it's nothing.


• Crown Prince: *FLIPS TABLE LIKE A TODDLER THROWING A TANTRUM*


• There are such good hats in this show. SUCH amazing hats.


• I know it's a classic, but Mu-yeong catching that book in midair is so good.


• WHEN YOU'RE QUITE FINISHED, YOUR HIGHNESS.


• I love Mu-yeong. "Why would you throw something worth more than my entire year's salary?"


• And he is absolutely upfront with calling the Crown Prince's tantrum throwing for what it is. I love it.


• I wish I understood more languages, because I would LOVE to know how the subs match up to what people are actually saying. Especially when the Crown Prince is talking about his step-mother, who is not just younger than him, she's apparently only barely an adult. I AM JUDGING EVERYONE INVOLVED IN ARRANGING THIS MARRIAGE QUITE A LOT AND YES I KNOW ABOUT HISTORICAL PRECEDENCE.


• ... Is the Crown Prince literally blackmailing one of his bodyguards into stealing the king's medical history over stealing desserts. Is that. Is that what's happening here.


• LITERALLY you're blackmailing him over loving his wife and wanting to bring her nice things, what the hell. Especially because you both know that you're not gonna do it. You're acting like too much of a brat about it.


• ... No, go back, tell me more about beef pancakes as a dessert food because I'm intrigued.


• Mu-yeong: *visibly hates his life*


• ... Is the Crown Prince ruining Mu-yeong's plan by ALSO breaking into the palace, like an ABSOLUTE dumbass?


• I FORGOT WHAT HE WAS LIKE IN THIS EPISODE, BECAUSE I JUST REMEMBERED HIM BEING AWESOME IN THE SECOND HALF OF THIS SERIES. COME ON.


• I guess respect to him for risking his own neck, but also COME ON.


• His master hiding strategy was literally "duck down a corridor and pray no one looks." YOU'RE LUCKY THEY WERE DISTRACTED BY BIGGER PROBLEMS.


• HOW DO YOU LOSE AN ENTIRE KING.


• I love how they manage to make a scene where a character walks down an empty corridor REALLY TENSE, because oh my god.


• Me: I have an anxiety disorder, I don't need horror media to wig me out.
  Also me: ADMIRE HOW GOOD THESE CREATORS ARE AT WIGGING ME OUT! ISN'T THEIR TECHNIQUE GOOD!


• Man, the use of shadows here are gooood, especially the way that they end with the light being put out.


• I respect the Crown Prince for opening that door, because I don't think I would have been able to do it. ... But of course he's instantly rumbled. THEY SAW YOU SNEAKING IN YOU DUMBASS.


• Bless Hot Done Guard. He is so done with all of this.


• Crown Prince: *breathless description of a monster stalking the hallways*
  Hot Done Guard: That cannot be true.


• The guard is SO DONE with the Crown Prince, so done.


• ... Can he... Can he do that? Can he literally just go "I know you're politely trying to arrest me, but I don't care" and walk off?


• I don't know what he was looking at on the ground, because I don't think I have the brightness of my laptop set high enough, what was it? Or was it a lack of things that he was looking at – no mud or anything to indicate that someone had snuck in from outside, for example? Or tracks from the lamp going over? Or floor monsters?


• Hot Done Guard: *LITERALLY DRAWS A SWORD ON THE CROWN PRINCE TO STOP HIM GOING INTO THE KING'S ROOM BECAUSE HE APPARENTLY HAS NOT A SINGLE DAMN LEFT TO GIVE*


• ... Wow, Crown Prince called his bluff. I was honestly not expecting that.


• Why is that guy even IN the king's bedroom. Like, I am in awe at the sheer degree of calling out that this man is doing, because wow, way to lace threat and accusation and explanation together into one menacing package, I applaud your work sir. but how did you notice this was happening with enough notice to be there looking menacing? Or were you just in there anyway?!


• Hot Done Guard is called Beom-Il and I guarantee that I will not remember this.


• (How do people remember character names when they aren't writing them out constantly? I literally don't know how anyone does it.)


• OH, they've moved the king! Definitely, 100% intentionally, moved the king. No escapes in this palace.


• OF COURSE Beom-il is Cho Hak-ju's son. OF COURSE.


• Was the Crown Prince being a distraction? Because that actually seems reasonable.


• ... How did they get away with not filling in the king's medical notes? Oh, oh that's the mystery. Oh dear, sir.


• So Mu-yeong hasn't had his job for long, is what I'm taking from that exchange. Okay. Cool. Fitting this together in my brain.


• ... I also kinda respect him putting together all of the pieces that he has and coming back with "I am in danger and should LEAVE."


• Although Mu-yeong's heart appears to be in the right place, i.e. disappointed because he can't smuggle food to his wife.


• (Something terrible is DEFINITELY going to happen to Mu-yeong's wife.)
  
• The nurse is so good and much better than anyone deserves.


• OH, the child is missing limbs, okay, I can follow that.


• DUDE STOP RAGGING ON HER, SHE'S DOING HER BEST WITH WHAT SHE HAS. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM A TINY HOSPITAL IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.


• Not that he's bitter about anything to do with the government or anything.


• Nurse: *pointedly tightens the guy's bandages because bedside manner is for people who AREN'T making her job harder*


• "Those people will become sicker if they don't eat that, so watch what you say." LOOK, I JUST REALLY THINK THAT SHE'S THE ONLY SENSIBLE CHARACTER IN THIS SHOW, BECAUSE SHE'S TRYING SO HARD TO KEEP EVERYONE ALIVE.


• Dude looks genuinely surprised by her, especially when she tells him where to go.


• ... NGL, I do kinda ship it? But in an unhealthy "bound together by guilt" kinda way.


• SERIOUSLY, WHY ARE YOU THERE. WHAT ARE YOU AFTER. WHY DID YOU WANT PHYSICIAN LEE. I DON'T THINK WE EVER FIND OUT THESE ANSWERS SO I'M CONCLUDING THAT YOUR INJURIES ARE SUPERFICIAL ON PURPOSE AND POSSIBLY SELF-INFLICTED BECAUSE YOU NEEDED AN EXCUSE TO BE HERE.


• The way that she LIGHTS UP when she hears Physician Lee is coming back is so good. And the way that fades as she realises that he's dragging a coffin behind him.


• DON'T JUST CRACK OPEN THE COFFIN YOU GUYS, WHAT THE HELL.


• Oh wow, he's been mauled. And the shady dude doesn't look surprised AT ALL.


• "Nothing happened." SIR. THAT IS THE LEAST BELIEVABLE LIE I HAVE EVER SEEN COMMITTED TO FILM. SIR. THIS MAN HAS HOLES IN HIM.


• These men are all talking like they've got scripts prepared, what a co-incidence. Except for the one Legit Scholar, who manages to utterly disrupt that script by asking simple questions like "Where and how did you find the letter/"


• Bless this man for laying out exactly how ridiculous this story is, and how eighty-nine people are being tortured RIGHT NOW on the word of one "informant". Because OBVIOUSLY there is a secret letter incriminating everyone, and OBVIOUSLY a random schmuck knows exactly where it is!


• Cho Hak-ju is CERTAINLY A PERSON with strong opinions on who has the right to rule and the effectiveness of Confucianism.


• ... And he literally just slammed Legit Scholar's face into a table in front of god and everybody because why the hell not intimidate people while you teach a guy not to question you!


• Legit Scholar is not long for this world. And neither is the Crown Prince by the look of this.


• Beom-il seriously just murdered a man for not knowing the answer to his question what the hell.


• The Crown Prince doesn't look like knows what to make of any part of this town, which is... Maybe not a great quality in a ruler, just saying. These people literally live IN WALKING DISTANCE OF YOU. How did you not know that this part of the city existed in this form!


• "Got severely ill" you say! What a charming euphemism for "got literally mauled to death by the king!"


• And the Crown Prince doesn't even speak to this guy directly, which I guess is good? Because it means that he understand that Mu-yeong is going to be better at this than he is? But also... Hmmmm.


• "Bitten by a huge beast" doesn't count as severely ill, my dude!


• What a good hat.


• ... And the Prince is just like "... Sure, we don't need to go home, I don't care about being caught." And Mu-yeong is APPALLED by the idea of the Crown Prince trying to travel without his attendants, because the Prince can barely cope with real life as it is.


• DO NOT MAKE MU-YEONG BE YOUR ATTENDANT, HE DESERVES BETTER THAN THAT.


• Mu-Yeong: Your royal highness, even the Haewon Cho Clan cannot harm you for something you did not do.
  Crown Prince: I did it.
  Mu-yeong: ... Pardon? May I beg your pardon?!
  Crown Prince: I conspired treason against Father.


• S C R E A M


• The Crown Prince's actual name is Lee Chang and I will DEFINITELY forget.


• I love the design of their official Document of Treason, but also WHY DOES THAT EXIST. IS IT SO THAT IF ONE PERSON BETRAYS YOU YOU CAN TAKE THEM DOWN AS WELL? BECAUSE THAT SEEMS LIKE A DANGEROUS TOOL TO HAVE.


• Okay, the Crown Prince isn't legitimate, so any heir that the Queen gives birth to has priority. GOT IT.


• His face is SO GOOD, by the way, just the way that his mouth is smiling and his eyes are so sad, which is the sort of complicated expression I want a man committing treason and patricide to be making.


• Oh no, that poor medical attendant is DEFINITELY dead.


• The hats in this show are so great.


• The subtitles on Netflix don't actually translate the note he's got there, so I sure hope that it wasn't anything plot-related!


• Beom-il is very murderous is what I'm taking from this episode.


• Ohhhhh no, the Crown Prince is so very very dead.


• So, wait, they've sent sixty people to arrest/murder TWO MEN. That is... Maybe a little much? I mean, I know that they're protagonists, but STILL.


• The first time that I watched this, I didn't realise how far they travelled. That must have taken DAYS.


• Which means that Dan-i's been dead for a couple of weeks, right?


• I need to find the actual fandom for Kingdom, because someone is probably out there going "Okay, here is a fun historical note about the tool that she's using here!" or the clothes, and I would be VERY HERE for it.


• I could probably actually make her bag, y'know. It wouldn't be with the same techniques, but I could probably make something that LOOKED like it.


• ... You live in the woods in a mountain, where it is so cold that your breath is literally steaming as you talk. Do you not let the patients light a fire when you're not there? Or do you just not have enough able-bodied people that you can take someone away from providing food for finding firewood?


• Look at how HAPPY everyone is! They're so lively and talkative and interested in what's going on, like this is the first decent meal they've had in a long time!


• And the nurses are SO CONFUSED and SO SUSPICIOUS. Like, she straight up RUNS to the kitchen.


• "The patients are starving to death, but the Physician is holed up in his room." ... I don't understand how you think Physician Lee can solve starvation, buddy, but I believe you that it is at least part of your motivation. Also if he SUSPECTED what was going to happen and did it anyway, just to draw out Physician Lee...


• How did you manage to hunt a deer with your bare hands?!


• "People here complain even if I bring food." Nope, still ship it, this is awkward.


• And he's just going around making sure that everyone is fed, which ALMOST makes me believe that he's a nice character.


• She looks so tempted by this soup, like it's been a long time since she's had a decent meal either. It's a good thing that the baby cried at the right time to guilt her out of it!


• Nurse: *picks up ladle of soup*
  Me: Countdown to a thumb bobbing up in three... Two... One...


• Okay that looks more like a toe, but the point still stands.


• The close-ups of all the meat is REALLY GRIM.


• The Nurse straight up just marches over and GRABS HIM, because she knows no fear. And he 100% knows why she's dragging him off, just look at him.


• I don't understand how Shady Dude was planning to cover this up by the way. Like, was he planning to let them bury an empty coffin? Was he going to put rocks in it? Was the body ALREADY BURIED and he dug it up?!


• See, Shady Guy argues that eating human flesh is fine ("Once you die, you're just a slab of meat."), but you notice that he DIDN'T EAT IT HIMSELF. We see him serving bowls of soup to people, but we know for a certain fact that he never touched it himself! HMMMMMM.


• This man is very convinced that half this country is full of cannibals. Very convinced.


• And the other nurse is so happy that patients are eating! This will not last.


• Night falls SUSPICIOUSLY QUICKLY in this show, for the record, because it looked like mid-afternoon at the latest when she dragged him into the shed, but now it is most definitely night time!


• I don't know how to phrase this so it doesn't sound like "zombies break my suspension of disbelief" because they don't, but the people playing zombies make me very aware that these are people who are being paid to do a very physical activity? One that requires skill and make-up and being able to move your body in specific ways. (Mouth-kissing is usually what breaks my suspension of disbelief completely, because I am the kid from The Princess Bride, and also because there are very few films where people mouth-kiss and I don't go "I know they're being paid to do this but WHAT IF THEY DON'T LIKE THE ACTOR THEY'RE BEING PAID TO KISS? WHAT IF THEY DON'T LIKE MOUTH-KISSING AT ALL?")


• But yes, seriously, the transformations into a zombie look like they hurt. It's not the quiet jump-scare transformations of the Resident Evil movies, where people become zombies and we don't know until they look up. These transformations are messy and painful, and it looks like people are seizing and choking as their bodies change, and it's really unsettling and really effective.


• A thing I've noticed; everyone dies roughly at the same time. It doesn't look like it was "these people ate the most soup" or "these people ate it first" – just, they all ate the soup, and as soon as night falls they start dying.


• WHERE IS THE BABY. I don't hear it crying, which possibly means that it's sleeping or the parents already killed it accidentally while they were seizing or that they fed the baby some of the broth, but SERIOUSLY WHERE IS THE TINY HUMAN THAT WE KNOW EXISTS.


• Bless this nurse for trying to save people, because she has no idea what is going on and she's trying to help anyway! Like, she sees one guy who might be alive and does everything she can to save him! BLESS THIS WOMAN FOR TRYING HER BEST SHE DESERVES SO MUCH BETTER.


• Seriously, the two guys who are the last to die wigs me the hell out, kudos to him.


• EVERYONE. LITERALLY EVERYONE IS DEAD. WHAT THE HELL.


• OH THIS MUSIC IS JAWS LEVEL OF NOPE.


• THAT TRANSITION FROM JONG-GU JUMPING ONE NURSE TO THE OTHER HITTING THE WALL WHEN SHADY GUY PUSHES HER IS SO GOOD.


• Oh, oh no, that she only got one scream out is good because she died fast, but bad because she only had time to scream that little bit.


• There is just a MOUNTAIN of zombies climbing over her, oh that's terrifying and effective and NOPE.


• They try to open the doors and IMMEDIATELY get shoved back, oh that's bad.


• ... I hope that isn't Chris' blood.


• LOOK AT THAT LAST SHOT AND THE ZOOM, AND THE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. WHERE'S THE ONE PERFECT SHOT TWITTER TO NOTE HOW GREAT THIS IS, COME ON.


• ... So yeah, this is gorgeous and pretty much equal parts politics and zombies and I kinda love it? I hope other people love it and it actually has a fandom on Dreamwidth, because that would make me happy? But also: I THOUGHT I DIDN'T LIKE HORROR, WHY DOES THIS PLEASE ME SO MUCH.

(Kingdom master post) (Reaction shot master post)