Bullet Points: Kingdom: Ashin of the North
One of my favorite things in recent years is the Korean historical zombie show currently streaming on Netflix called Kingdom. It’s absolutely bonkers in terms of zombie killings and the political intrigue portion of the show just might be good enough to overtake the action part. While fans of the show have been patiently waiting for Season 3 of the show, a single “episode” (more like a full film) was released that serves as something of a prequel to the series. Let’s find out if it can satiate our cravings while we wait…
Synopsis: Tragedy, betrayal and a mysterious discovery fuel a woman’s vengeance for the loss of her tribe and family in this special episode of “Kingdom.”
- The invaders: We get a bit of a recap to start the movie and it tells us that there are a group of folks threatening to invade Joseon territory from the north. That’s gonna be important because our main character Ashin lives in a small village that is right on the frontier. It’s the kind of place that doesn’t belong in either land but is more importantly located right next to the mountain with the zombie plant on it.
- You will pay the price: Young Ashin finds the plant and a small inscription on a cave wall that talks about how it can bring the dead back to life. She’s curious because her mother is slowly dying and despite all that she and her father have done they just can’t find a solution. Speaking of ole daddy, he’s unofficial leader of the village and also a spy for the Joseon’s against the Jurchens. He’s in line to get an official position that would give the family a pretty good situation but all of that is about to come to an abrupt end.
- The Tiger: A collection of bodies is found on the mountain and all of the dead folks appear to be Jurchens who were sneaking around mountain gathering wild ginseng. Not a big deal, except they don’t take kindly to their people getting killed and this is exactly the thing that could cause that large army of theirs to all of a sudden attack Joseon territory. It’s eventually determined that Ashin’s father will go and tell them that the people were killed by a tiger. They even get a hunting party together to search for a tiger and it sets up our first awesome action sequence of the film.
- Big little liars: Poor daddy never had a chance and while the peace is upheld between the Jurchens and the Joseon, Ashin returns to her village to find it on fire and everyone dead. She has no choice but to go to the Joseon camp and beg for them to find the culprits. She’ll do anything for them to get revenge for her father and we follow her for years as her life is pure shit.
- Ashin comes back to life: Tasked with spying on the Jurchens like her father, Ashin sneaks into their camp and finds a limbless man who begs for death. It’s her daddy! The character goes on quite a journey over the course of the film and it’s here where she appears to cross that point of no return. New evidence suggests that it wasn’t the Jurchens who killed her people but the same Joseon that she has been serving this entire time. She is not happy.
- Death dealer: Let the destruction begin! Kingdom didn’t have a tiny budget and neither does this prequel. It means that the sets look great and can be destroyed at a moments notice. Ashin appears to “switch off” and everyone that she has come to know over the last several years have finally now found themselves on her shit list.
- Living well isn’t the best revenge: We’ve been told and led to believe that a life well lived is the best revenge. Bullshit! Ashin doesn’t care about that sort of thing. Once she realizes what happened to her village and who was responsible for this entire ordeal then no one is safe. We’ve seen her honing in her archery skills and sneaking all over God’s green earth so when she finally goes all ninjas on their asses it is no surprise. She turns the infection loose within the Joseon military camp and sits back to see the devastation. The scene is reminiscent of the attacks in the series and we get to see Ashin standing tall on the buildings with her bow in hand while the place falls into absolute chaos. She drags one final living guy back to the remains of her old village where we see a group of her people chained up and frothing at the mouths.
The Verdict: Ashin of the North is a great addition to the Kingdom series. It doesn’t have the multiple hours to put towards various storylines so we follow closely along with Ashin as she turns from small, curious girl, to absolute badass. The zombie action doesn’t get hot and heavy until the finale but once it does it will fit right in with what we witnessed on the first two seasons of the series. This is exactly the type of film that benefits from streaming and I only hope that Netflix continues to produce this type of content. I love it and can’t wait for Season 3 of Kingdom.
