All of Us Are Dead is a South Korean zombie-teen action thriller Netflix series directed by Lee Jae-kyoo and Kim Nam-su. The film’s story is adapted from a local webtoon (digital comic) entitled Now at Our School. This film stars dozens of teenage stars, including Park Ji-hoo, Yoon Chan-young, Park Solomon, Cho Yi-hyun, Lee Yoo-mi, and senior actor Lee Kyu-hyung. The series has 12 episodes that average about 1 hour in length. The South Korean film industry, we know, has produced several quality and new zombie films for its genre, such as Train to Busan, Alive, The Wailing, Rampant, to the popular Kingdom series. So, how far is the achievement of this series compared to other films?
Since they were little, Cheong-san and Omjo have been friends and now attend the same school, Hyosan High School. One day, their school became the source of a zombie outbreak that started with a small accident in the laboratory. Within minutes, hundreds of students turned into undead that preyed on other students. Cheong-san, Omjo, and their classmates must survive before outside help arrives.
In summary, the story looks simple, but the process of the plot journey is impossible for us to mention entirely because it is too long. Imagine, the duration is more than 12 hours if you want to watch the film in a marathon. However, the scrolling episode seems to flow quickly without being noticeably passed. The story runs intensely, moves without stopping, always changing spaces and characters, running almost non-stop with a solid side of tension maintained. Sometimes it feels tiring because some moments feel repetitive (especially dramatic moments), but overall the plot can run dynamically with the insertion of internal conflicts that excite us. For this long series and the short duration of the story (about three days), it is worth appreciating the achievement of the script.
Of course, the advantage of serial films is the exposition (background). Flashback moments often provide background information for the story or characters, but sometimes the repeated flashbacks only disturb, which seem to buy screening time. Some of the non-student characters who were present also didn’t have a meaningful effect on the plot. Understandably, this is a logical consequence of this long series. On the other hand, one more value is some inserts of humanist humour, which is rarely found in this kind of film—for example, the montage when they made an emergency toilet. Intimate moments are also often inserted, which gives a warm feel in the middle of the tiring action segment. Unfortunately, this moment is not enough to fully sympathize with all the characters, except for 2-3 characters. Train to Busan is still better at attracting audience sympathy for its many characters with a duration of only 2 hours.
One strength of this film is clearly in the limited set in the Hyosan High School complex building with all its attributes. The action moves from room to room, including classrooms, laboratories, teacher & principal’s room, cafeteria & kitchen, library, toilets, gym, music room, stairwell area, and more. The action always offers different tensions and conflicts in every room and moment. This is what makes the story does not make us bored quickly. Some of the irregularities of the action in the plot are understandable; only sometimes, we must be exasperated by the ridiculous actions of the characters in finding solutions to problems facing zombies. They already know very well that zombies can kill them no matter what, but sometimes they forget the reality they are facing and are more concerned with feelings. Sometimes it works well, and sometimes it’s overdramatic.
All of Us Are Dead is a long, fresh thriller for its subgenre, with the power of mise_en_scene and its human side, although some moments have plot holes and over-dramatization. Producing a series this long and maintaining a rhythm of tension is not easy; the filmmaker has responded to this very well. In terms of story, this film is not on the same level as Train to Busan and Alive, both located in a limited space. At least, All of Us Are Dead has given a new colour to the zombie subgenre through teenage characters with all their patterns and trends and reflects the latest global situation happening to humankind.
