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| All of Us Are Dead (2022) |
All of Us Are Dead is a South Korean, Netflix series that was released on January 28th of this year, the year 2022. However, I started watching it on February 1st, and, admittedly, that somewhat colored my experience of it with Valentine’s Day being a couple of weeks away. Regardless, the series does undeniably contain various depictions of love, friendship, and romance amidst the struggle to survive and escape the zombies and the virus that turned them. And that’s what I’ll be covering here.
Kind of messed up to be mixing love and such with horror, what is wrong with you? Some might wonder. Well, yes, it IS kind of messed up. But that doesn’t make it any less possible or valid. As I was saying previously, there’s Bonding Through Horror, and that’s something that some of us can appreciate for different reasons. Maybe we’re scarred for life and can relate, or just a bit twisted and into it.
SPOILERS ALERT! If you want to avoid spoilers, you can stop reading right now.
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| All of Us Are Dead (2022) |
Amazingly, this series does encompass a wide range of manifestations of love - even ones that are misguided and become something terrible.
• Lee Byeong-chan, the creator of the virus.
Good intentions, awful disregard for the risks and consequences. Byeong-chan was the science teacher and the father of a student that was constantly bullied by classmates and neglected by the school staff. Byeong-chan, after repeated failed attempts to help his son through proper means, took matters into his own hands and used his knowledge and his skills to develop a substance that would hopefully make his son stronger and able to stand up for himself and stand a chance against a world that did not care for him. Unfortunately, it did not work as expected and, despite his best efforts, he could not find an antidote. Instead, a deadly and extremely contagious virus was created that had no known cure.
• Nam So-ju, the captain of the fire station.
A local hero and an accommodating father. Not moved by greed or status, he only encouraged his daughter to be well and would even tell her that she shouldn’t push herself. Something that she didn’t quite welcome and that one would question. It would seem at first that he was indifferent and did not believe in her potential. But we later get to see how deeply caring he is and how willing he is to go the extra mile for others - especially for his daughter and for those most in need. We see how competent he is at what he does, too. Apparently, he just didn’t see a real need to obsess about grades, titles, and the like and was nudging his daughter away from what was likely not meant for her. That, and he renounces his safety to go all the way back and risk his life, eventually giving it up, to save her, saving her group as well in the process.
• Park Sun-hwa, the English teacher.
Kind and gentle, doing her best to keep the harmony between the students and to make the best decisions for them while allowing them to voice their concerns and explain themselves. So soft-hearted that it made her verge on naivety. Though, despite her reluctance, she could face the facts and still choose to be compassionate after unforgivable acts. When Lee Na-yeon, the classist student that looked down on Han Gyeong-su for being on welfare (and basically killed him by infecting him with the virus in order to “prove” that she was right), was called out and rejected by the group, Sun-hwa went after her to continue to protect her and, before dying and turning, practically begged her to be helpful to others.
• Jin Seon-mu, the military that ordered the bombing.
Sometimes you’ve got to make hard decisions, and no character embodies this more than Jin Seon-mu, who saw it as having no other choice but to kill thousands of people in order to save the rest of the world. Whether he was justified or not is debatable and surely would bring disagreements depending on personal values. But it all boils down to the fact that he played it safe for the greater good. And even though to him this was the appropriate thing to do, the deaths of the innocent still weighed on his conscience enough to cause him to want to take his own life.
• Song Jae-ik and Jeon Ho-cheol, the policemen.
Every now and then, you stumble upon good policemen. Maybe they’re just doing their job, what they’re told to do, and maybe they’re not exactly the bravest, but they still have a moral compass and are compelled to do the right thing no matter the costs. Jae-ik and Ho-cheol are caught up running around and through the infected town as they aim to reach others and tell them about the computer holding information regarding the virus. Yet, they cannot turn their backs on a baby, a little girl, and an injured man that they come across along the way. Heck, they even brought with them an asymptomatic student, not noticing her infected state. And even when one of them ran away and seemingly abandoned the other, he turned around and returned with a much better vehicle for all.
• Orangibberish, the streamer.
A bit of a comic relief, wearing an orange-shaped hat, but still admirable in his recklessness. Orangibberish put himself in danger for his viewers, broadcasting his venture in real-time. Partly because he wanted views, likes, and subscribes, but also because he believed it was his mission to show others the truth of the situation, as journalists and people in power were not reliable to do so or be as transparent as he would be about it. Or at least that was his excuse. That didn’t go as envisioned, for he ended up handicapped and stuck on a rooftop and didn’t get to show very much. But he tried.
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| All of Us Are Dead (2022) |
• Park Hee-su, the pregnant student.
We see Hee-su suffering from the beginning. When the first case of a zombie breaching containment happens, still unrecognized by others, and she cannot be tended to, she’s busy carrying herself away to go into labor on her own. She gives birth to her child in secret, in a public restroom, and initially, she abandons the baby for somebody else to find and take responsibility for. Her mind is changed, however, when she comes to realize the mess that they are all in and then does all she can to keep the small creature out of harm’s way - even tying herself up before she turns into yet another threat to it.
• Nam On-jo and Lee Cheong-san, the childhood friends.
With constant teasing and denial of their true feelings, these two insist on merely being friends since childhood. And while On-jo is crushing on somebody else, Cheong-san is harboring intense feelings for her. It is clear to many around them that this is the case, but On-jo doesn’t quite catch it. Maybe doesn’t want to, either. As she had been treated as anything but a love interest, in Cheong-san’s efforts to hide his emotions, it is understandable if she’s unable to see him the same way. Nevertheless, it is also clear that she loves him dearly and is deeply pained to lose him.
• Choi Nam-ra and Lee Su-hyeok, the inseparable pair.
Speaking of hiding true feelings, Nam-ra and Su-hyeok are also guilty of it. However, in the case of Su-hyeok, it is only masked to some extent by being generally amicable and righteous. Nevertheless, he does pay particular attention to Nam-ra and is frequently watching over her. You’d have to be dense to brush it off as no more than being concerned for somebody who is isolated. We don’t know why exactly he likes her so much, but he expressed feeling inferior to her due to not being as smart and having been involved with a mean and cruel gang in the past. So, it can be inferred that he might admire her for what he lacks. Yet, beyond that, he doesn’t stop at anything to be by her side. Despite being comparatively popular, he doesn’t mind losing the approval of others to stand with her and listens to no objections to it. Would even act wrongly for her. Alternatively, Nam-ra may seem cold and distant and be assumed to be elitist, but that’s far from the truth. She likes Su-hyeok, too, and is especially sentimental about the meaningful moments that she gets to share with the group. She may be considered harsh, but it’s thanks to her unfiltered honesty (complete with her perceptiveness) that justice is served on the classist incident. And once she gains new abilities from the virus, though hesitant and slow to use them, she is a huge help to the group.
• Jang Ha-ri, the determined sister.
Ha-ri is single-minded about finding her brother, who’s presumably still in school. Chances are that he’s already dead, another zombie roaming the premises, but she is not deterred by that. And although this is evidently what she most cares about, she proceeds with poise, without adopting a “the end justifies the means” attitude. Instead, she moves forward without sacrificing or leaving anyone behind if she can help it - even when it may be frustrating or burdensome. And albeit stoic in expression, the relief and joy she experiences upon finding her brother alive are evident. As is her pain and sorrow when she loses him.
• Yoo Joon-sung and Oh Joon-yeong, the sacrificing.
Call them “extras” or disposable, but they did what the majority of people wouldn’t: They literally sacrificed their lives so that others would live. They did have their reasons, though, making them more compelled to do so. Joon-sung was already injured and had become a liability, so he figured he would go and buy the rest some time. And Joon-yeong claimed that he’d take accountability if his plan didn’t work out, so he kept his promise and made things easier for the rest. Nevertheless, it takes virtue and high regard for others to make this sort of choice when one wishes to survive too.
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| All of Us Are Dead (2022) |
• Yang Dae-su, Jang Woo-jin, Seo Hyo-ryung, Park Mi-jin, and others in the team.
Last but not least on this list, there are all the students that were good and great teammates in spite of whatever differences or conflicts arose between them. Ones that could be counted on. That did not throw others under the bus, backstab, nor proved themselves ultimately untrustworthy. More than that, many of them would be delayed or even go out of their way to help the group the best they could. On occasions doing way more than they really had to for the sake of it. Throughout all the chaos, growing closer to and fonder of each other. We’d see Dae-su almost staying behind to hold back the zombies while the group escaped, for example. He also apologizes after unknowingly fighting Cheon-san’s mother in front of him while he was still processing that she had turned into a zombie, showing that he cared for others’ feelings even in the dire situation that they were in and with how it was simply logical to attack a zombie that would attack them. Furthermore, he is the one who leads the singing in a wholesome moment around the fire on the rooftop. Mi-jin, too, as feisty and tough as she acted, was someone dependable that wouldn’t easily give up regardless of her constant irritation. She would scold and yell at others’ incompetence, be cuttingly sarcastic when she wasn’t getting her way, but she still sought to lead others to safety if not just contribute to this goal.
I’ve described some of the most notable instances to me, but there’s a lot more that's significant left out. And some of the characters were gone too soon to do any more that was probably in their nature to do.
In the end, though, the survivors must come to terms with what has become of the world and where that leaves them in relation to it and to each other. Knowing that they went through hell and it is not yet over...
Do you see yourself in any of these characters? How would you behave under this type of circumstances?