Excited to start your week with a fun and thrilling high school zombie flick? Then this isn't it.
I was very excited about this one. In the pictures, it looked so good. The trailer was well-made and was hype material. And it's gotten quite popular as well. I couldn't wait to binge this since I have seen Kingdom, Train to Busan, Sweet Home (Not exactly zombies but monsters/survival type) and thought maybe they're good with these themes. But I was mistaken.The problem with All of Us Are Dead is how stereotypical it is. The main character is the childhood friend of the female main character and they also have two other friends with them. There is the "Hot Oppa" type of character who is very righteous and very strong. There is the quiet class president who's the topper of the class and is very smart but no one likes her because they all assume that she doesn't like them as well. There is also this annoying girl who's literally annoying for no reason at all. I can go on and on. These characters feel like I've seen them before in so many different media. And a major problem is how they act so stiff. It doesn't feel like they are real characters making real decisions. It's almost like the series itself wants these characters to stay between a set of tropes and never do something different.
There is this one character (who I will not specify for spoiler reasons) who stays true to their stereotype in almost all of the episodes. And almost an entire episode was dedicated to their character, we get to see how they are finally starting to change as a character, and right after that moment, the character dies. My question is, why? What was the point of wasting that much time over that character if they were gonna die with zero development? Unfortunately, this series pulls this so many times that it majorly affected my viewing experience.
If that wasn't enough, the plot is just so predictable. When you can literally tell what event is gonna take place in the next few minutes, the series is not doing a good job in the storytelling department. There were some moments I could automatically tell who's gonna die next. And no, this isn't something that's common for horror-thriller or zombie-survival types of movies, because to my memory, good series like Kingdom or movies like Train to Busan was never like that. You couldn't automatically tell what's gonna happen next because the story is being told in a perfect way and the events felt sudden like it was supposed to.
Characters often make decisions that are so stupid that I actually don't know if they are even a human. For example, one of the characters died while trying to push a zombie away with their fist. You are in a zombie apocalypse and instead of protecting the place where you could be bitten easily, you choose to push a zombie away with your hand right next to their mouth when you literally have other objects you can use to push them away. That isn't the only instance of dumb decisions. The choices these characters make in the entirety of this series are so bad. Sometimes, I couldn't help but wish all of them had just gotten bitten already.
I was more entertained watching the detective's perspective and that one Seoul University guy (Not Sang-Woo) and that one stupid vlogged. Then it would turn into a zombie comedy but at least it would be entertaining compared to whatever this is.
The series spends more time explaining how to make an emergency toilet than explaining how the zombie mechanics work and why some people turn into half-zombies and some people don't.
They also had to include so many characters, some of them end up having zero developments and are left uninteresting. Later on, the series just kills them off in true Korean drama fashion.
Sound and production are not impressive enough to write home about. The cast is overwhelmingly big and some characters are terribly written. The main female character, On-Jo's acting was so stiff sometimes. She has only one expression throughout the entire series.
If you think you should still watch this and see for yourself, go ahead. Just a warning, it's 12 episodes long and each episode's duration is almost an hour. So when you round it up, it's a 12 hour-long series.
If you think that this series isn't worth your time, and if you are okay with some spoilers explaining how ridiculous some moments were in the whole series that just ruin your experience, refer to this comment of mine:
https://mydramalist.com/59449-our-school-now#comment-8593081
Well, that's the gist of it. You are still free to be adventurous and watch this series, as we all perceive media in a different way depending on the person, you might enjoy it. But I won't recommend this to anyone. Not only is it very long, it just wastes time with useless moments that don't contribute to the story later on.
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How far will you go in order to survive?
"All of us are dead" is a classic zombie drama with a lot of action, thriller and horror elements. Even though the story is nothing groundbreaking, it doesn't fail to deliver enjoyment to the viewers that seek for zombies and epic action.As the drama consists a very high number of brutal and gore scenes, in addition with bulling and sexual harassment, it's not for the lighthearted. The drama's extreme violence made the drama at times really disturb and difficult to watch. If you know you can't bear it, then avoid it.
As for the drama's pace, the first episode is slow but the drama in general is very fast paced because it contains many action scenes. As the drama is very suspenseful and stressful to offset seriousness, and make the drama easier to watch, at times it has some comic reliefs. Thus, every episode is good watching experience. As it's a 12-episode drama though, it's difficult to binge-watch it right away.
The Story
"All of us are dead" is based on a webtoon by the same name, written by Joo Dong-Geun. The original run of the webtoon was from May, 13th 2009 to November, 9th 2011. The story mainly revolves around the struggle for survival of the students who were trapped in the ground zero for the zombie virus, the school.
Webtoon comparison
The drama adaptation has many differences with the original story that gave it some advantages and disadvantages. I will analyze some of these changes below.
1. The beginning
Unlike the original story, which starts straight away, the drama invests some time to set the characters background. The advantage of this change was that the viewers had the time to get to know the characters so it was easier later to understand their motives and empathize with them. The disadvantage of this change was that the first episode was slow and it may be boring for some of the viewers.
2. The center of the story
In both stories the center of the drama was the school, but in the drama, we see a lot of subplots outside the school that originally didn't exist, or they weren't fully developed. That way, we see a more global picture of the events that took place under the zombie apocalypse. For example, the overall government's response was more carefully written and seemed more logical and comprehensive in drama.
The disadvantage of this change was that some of the extra subplots were completely unnecessary (and illogical) and that could easily put off some viewers (which in my case happened).
3. Characters & relations
As the drama consists of many extra scenes and subplots, some of the characters are extra too. Apart from this, some of the original characters have different storylines, deaths and relationships from the original story. As for the storyline, the actions of a lot of characters changed but their personalities remained the same. As far as the dead are concerned, the only thing that changed was the cause or the timing of their death. This change was neutral for me as the results were the same as the webtoon.
4. Action
The drama is filled with a huge amount of action scenes and almost all of them aren't part of the original story. On the one hand, the action made the drama a thrilling watching experience as some of them were pretty amazing. On the other hand, as far as the story's events are concerned, due to the action "overdose" the story got draggy. This affected the characters also because, even though they had better and more complete background and relations than the webtoon, the necessary time for them to develop through the episodes, wasn't given.
5. The virus' origin
The virus origin that causes the zombie apocalypse is different in the drama. I can't analyze this in detail because I don't want to spoil it. What can I say is that in the drama they tried to make a full background of the virus and support it with sci-fi biology elements which was pretty convincing for someone who doesn't know about biology. Again, this was an advantage for the drama.
6. The ending
Both endings have many similarities but the webtoon ends while the drama may require a second season. As the webtoon has ended, the second season of the drama will be completely unrelated with the original story. The writers don't have elements to base a second season on, so it's unsure if a second season will be released or if it will end up being a good sequence of the story. This change may be a big disadvantage for someone who doesn't like incomplete stories but at least the story has a closure so maybe it's less frustrating.
Conclusion
The drama and the webtoon have countless differences which have both negative and positive effects on the story. We can say that the drama's story is loose based on the webtoon as it just kept the story skeleton and created a new one. In general, I think the adaptation can be considered as a good one.
My overall impression of the drama’s story is not very great, not very bad either. It was a mediocre story and there were many unnecessary and illogical things for me to accept. Also, several same (or almost same) things and events happened which made the story repetitive and tedious at times. What I liked the most, was how it manages to show how differently everyone acts in order to survive or to save someone else.
The production & Acting
The greatest thing about this drama, it's its production and directing, they were just amazing. Maybe "All of us are dead" has one of the best productions a Netflix original kdrama has. From the VFX to the zombie’s make-up, to the choreographed action scenes, to the scene’s shots and transitions, everything was perfectly and meticulously made. The music on the other hand was the weakest part of the production as it wasn't so memorable to me and it felt a little off from time to time.
The acting in general was okay. As I've said before, the drama mainly had action scenes so the actors didn't have enough to work with and create multi-dimensional characters with complex emotions. Some actors, though, manage to shine and catch my attention as a viewer. These were Yoo Chan Young, Jo Yi Hyun and Park Solomon.
Overall
"All of us are dead" was a drama with a mediocre typical story about zombies. It doesn't have the touching story of "Train to Busan”, the mysterious aura of "Kingdom", the uniqueness of "Sweet Home" or "Happiness" but it has one of the best productions of zombie action scenes which makes it a very decent and solid zombie drama. So, if you're looking for a drama for zombies with impressive action elements, watch it for sure. You won't be disappointed.
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Namhyeok supremacy
I have to start this off with my favorite part of — Suhyeok and Namra, who totally stole the show, both individually and together. I just loved Namra's character arc in particular, and though romance is by no means a main focus of this show, their scenes are the ones I keep going back to rewatch.With that being said, I think it was really good that romance wasn't a main focus, and yet it was there in certain light-hearted moments, reminding us that these characters are still kids who deal with crushes and first kisses and butterflies. I think both of the main relationships were done absolutely beautiful and we got just the right amount for them.
I think my main criticism with this is just the massive amount of unnecessary characters there are. I liked the two main groups for sure (although I admit some of those characters felt extra — it was as if they were to die in case someone needed to be killed off) and some of the peripheral characters like parents, and I anxiously awaited moments where their paths would cross. But other than that, there were a lot of other character groups and arcs that took up time and got incomplete arcs like the politician, the livestreamer, or the pregnant girl; I either didn't care for those or were downright annoyed with them. Even some of the characters that were more relevant kind of had their character development swerving off-kilter in a non-sensical way.
I also felt like the last episode was really rushed; I felt like taking out some of those unnecessary characters and spending more time with the main group could have given the changes in the last episode more screentime — I also wouldn't have been opposed to having this be a full 16-episodes so we could see more about the aftermath and maybe get an ending that was more satisfying. It currently stands a bit bittersweet and I have mixed feelings on that.
In conclusion - watch for Suhyeok and Namra.
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A treat for Zombie Thriller lovers ....
(Non Spoiler Review)No matter what, always stick to the orginal content, there is no compromise in the story and its very brutal, Netflix Orginal drama doesn't disappoint us these days. Every month they brought something really worth for time. All of us are dead probably one of the best zombie thriller i have had watched in recent time. The concept of zombie is now become a cliché, even though this whole drama was a different experience.
This is a webtoon adaptation with same name, the episodes numbers were increased which was unusual for a Netflix Orginal drama also some episode length were little bit high. Some people may feel little dragging in the middle and its understandable because they slowly making this whole atmosphere more and more intense. The making was one of the key factor. Its just unbelievable every time when you watching a zombie thriller. The performance of all those zombie looks scary, here also it's insane.
I didn't felt much of a dragging in the screenplay as i already mentioned they slowly developing the seriousness of the situation. May be we can predict almost every scene that coming next but still some breathtaking moments were there, which gives you a different experience for sure. The performance of the leads was good especially some stories like this, there is always have one or two annoying character who gets all attention, that feels super cliché. But eventually you get annoyed and that's what the makers want.
The emotional scenes, Friendship, little bit of romance also little bit of love triangle, everything was good and perfect fit. Overall all of us are dead is a must watch drama if you are a zombie thriller fan. Every episode is thrilling and engaging till the end. Try it
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This ain't no Train to Busan!! Skip it!
I am a huge zombie movie/ drama fan and this show was a waste of 12 hours of my life. Poorly written, poorly acted- the only reason anyone is watching it is because it is a Netflix production,Unnecessarily includes sexual assault (which isn't in the original story) and nudity of a minor. If this was necessary to the arc of the story I would understand ... but it isn't so it seems to have been shoved into the story for shock value and probably some misogyny on the part of the director. Then the end game for this bullied student is SUCH A WASTE.
Same goes for teenage pregnancy and a girl with no sign of being pregnant seemingly and with no issues gives birth to her baby in the toilet and after this is good to go and run around town ... how is this relevant to the story? Who knows?
Poor character development and no one makes you want to root for them- in the end you hope all of them will be dead ...
Such wasted potential for a zombie drama set in a high school ...
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This review may contain spoilers
A succession of gore and betrayal
I’ll start by saying that the production is very good, but it’s not a surprise as there is nothing less to expect from Netflix. All the actors did a great job.They tried hard to come up with a fresh story about zombies. In brief, the drama Is the typical survival race against zombies with a mix of gore & korean school issues such as bullying, teen sex, etc.
From the origin to the virus to the end with Nam-ra & “others like her”, it is poorly explained and doesn’t really make sense.
The drama could have been good, but unfortunately, It is overall a disappointment. The characters aren’t developed and it became a succession of unfortunate events, of useless fights between the characters, of human beings at their lowest points, etc. It feels they tried so hard to go against cliches that they just made the worst happened to “surprise” you.
Some characters & scenes are useless to the story & it feels that some scenes were added to add length to the story but definitely failed to add depth. The teenager who had a baby. On-Jo’s father who spent 10 episodes to look for, but died after 1,5 min he reunited with her, The bully that stays alive (but we don’t know how) & spent all episodes to run after ML to finally gauge his eye out and died with him. Etc, etc...
It reminded me a lot #Alive but with schoolmates rather than neighbours. The drama format was issueless and they could have made a movie out of this story, it would have probably avoided all the unnecessary added scenes.
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Disastrous show
What to say about this train wreck of a show… I disliked every single aspect of it. I’m a huge fan of korean zombie shows and movies but this drama is just an embarrassment. I don’t understand how it became popular in the first place, as it has 0 redeeming qualities to it.I’m truly infuriated and disgusted with myself for having even watched it until the end. I guess I was hoping for the plot to deliver what it promised but it was full of clichés, repetitions, stupid useless scenes and characters, anti-climatic outcomes and everything bad a story can have. I’ll forgive the acting (the older actors were good though) because most of these people are pretty new in the game and they’re young, but the acting was pretty bad too. The characters were useless, unlikeable, unrealistic, their actions made no sense and their worries (crushes????like wtf????) were meaningless most of the time. And the inconsistencies with the way the infected acted (how long it took them to turn etcetc) just pissed me off. The way the story was told as a whole isn’t coherent or interesting.
To be fair, it could have been really good if they had wasted less time with irrelevant storylines, if had organized the way it’s presented in a more thrilling way, if they had made the characters and their reactions more realistic and logical… I could go on for a whole hour. But maybe it would have been a decent drama had it been released in 2014 or something. The thing is, especially if you compare it to actually amazing zombie movies and shows, namely Train to Busan and Kingdom, this is honestly just ridiculous.
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This review may contain spoilers
A struggle to watch
All of Us Are Dead is South Korea's latest entry into their increasing array of zombie productions. The hype surrounding this drama since its teasers and trailers was real, further proven by the amount of enthusiasm shown by worldwide viewers as the drama was finally released on Netflix. I, myself, was among those who were excited for this drama's release, but after watching the entirety of its episodes, I found it disappointing to say the least.The main problem I had with this drama is its writing. It has major issues— full of plotholes, repetitiveness, inconsistencies and wasted potential. I was most disappointed with how they didn't utilize Nam Ra's abilities as a half-zombie well enough. Instead of letting the group face the same pattern of finding a safe place to hide, having them argue with one another and moving to another safe place over and over again which eventually got really tiring to watch, they could've made room for a more dynamic plot by having Nam Ra use her abilities to help them escape the school earlier. This would've allowed some extra time that can be used to further develop the characterizations which fell shallow for some of the characters. Until the end, I wasn't able to sympathize with a lot of these characters despite having went though 12 whole episodes full of tragedy and loss alongside them. I had a big problem rooting for the female lead in particular due to her general blandness. Her character wasn't interesting nor engaging enough even compared to several of the supporting characters, such as Jang Ha Ri and Park Mi Jin.
There was also a lot of pointless plotlines throughout the drama. To name a few, Gwi Nam's revenge against Cheong San (did he seriously think the police were still going to sit behind their desks processing reports when the entire city has gone to hell ?), the assemblywoman who served absolutely no purpose whatsoever, the hunt for Lee Byeong Chan's laptop because he claimed it contained the key to finding a cure when it turned out to only be a recording of him saying there was no cure, and even On Jo's father's dramatic yet HIGHLY PREVENTABLE death.
The drama also tries to address real life issues such as bullying, sexual harassment, academic and social pressure in attempt to create a woke statement of some sort but it doesn’t add to much. It’s just there to be there. I think having Eun Ji epically stand off against the bully, both as half zombies, would have helped in this aspect, as little as it might.
It wasn't all that bad, though. I enjoyed the action sequences. It's obvious they spent a lot of effort and budget into creating those scenes. The props, makeup, and choreography for the zombies were amazing. Though having some noticeable mistakes and inconsistencies, the action was gripping and suspenseful enough to push you to continue watching. Characters such as Nam Ra, Su Hyeok, Cheong San, Ha Ri, Mi Jin, detective Jae Ik, his partner, and even Na Yeon at times helped made this drama more lively.
The acting range of this drama was mixed. As expected, it was a total delight watching Lee Kyu Hyung's onscreen performance. Several of the younger actors did a great job as well, namely Jo Yi Hyun (Nam Ra), Yoon Chan Young (Cheong San) Yoo In Soo (Gwi Nam) and Lee Yoo Mi (Na Yeon). The rest were either okay or lacking.
The finale sort of picked up the drama a bit. It's because they finally utilized Nam Ra's character properly, having her fight in the frontlines instead of standing around in the back.
All in all, All of Us Are Dead is quite mediocre. It was a fun watch to kill time, but nothing more.
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Watch if you can stand loopholes, idiocracy and unserved justice
Acting is great not gonna lie.The main issue i have with this drama was how they presented multiple themes/backstories but left them all hanging/unsatisfiable.
Seriously, the bullies’ outcome aint equivalent to what they delivered to their victims.
Also, there were quite a few unnecessary sacrifices, omg, all the character development for them to be written off so badly..
If you can stand illogic, stupid and selfish decisions made by the survivors, do go ahead!
Brace yourself to take everything lightly if not this show will seriously give you anxiety and hair-pulling moments.
(Think i've gotten myself high blood pressure from screaming at the screen whenever the survivors do something WITHOUT common sense.)
Nevertheless, its pretty fast paced and addicting.
Also, KUDOS TO THE ZOMBIE CGI!!!
The choreography of the infected turning into zombies is so beautiful and creative!
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its good enough
I understand they are young actors, lets put that acting aside. I have only one complaint, all the characteristics are annoying, stupid, dumb and impulsive. The story itself feels like what if i am teenager in the zombie apocalypse by a adult. They had so many chances to escape and save if only they properly coordinated with each other, but what did they do, all they did was complain, discuss love, and a bunch of crazy stupid things.Ok i got bored and finished the series, its good enough, i was a little harsh above, as I only watched the 1 episode, don't mind that. The content is engaging and keeps you on the edge throughout the series as i finished the series.
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This is how you write and direct a zombie TV series
This is way far better than all The Walking Dead seasons combined. Highly recommended for both who likes the zombie genre and those who doesn't like it.This isn't your usual, ordinary, zombie show. It's full of character development, real life and realistic drama, and lessons in survival and life itself.
In this show, they truly captured how high school students would have acted and think. While maybe, some characters and situations were annoying, you would realize that's how you and your classmates would have been at that age of your life. They also did not shy away from showing the very difficult task of making decisions, and best of all, how in the middle of fear, uncertainty, and death, humanity still can trust and support each other at the end of the day.
It's not all running. There are stories behind every episode, every character, every scene. Something you don't see in majority of zombie films and TV series.
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An unconventional zombie series : apocalyptic devastation with high-school shenanigans
What would happen if your school was attacked by zombies? Netflix’s latest hit K-drama, All of Us Are Dead, attempts to give us a solid answer to this question, as Hyosan High School turns into a fast-sinking ship when a science experiment gone terribly wrong results in a virus-induced zombie outbreak.For a few years now, South Korean entertainment has been pushing the narrative boundaries of the zombie genre. They have deftly used it as a vehicle to explore not just present-day political and social issues (#Alive, 2020), but have also inserted the undead in their period dramas (Kingdom, 2019).
However, what makes All of Us Are Dead stand out amidst this growing list of K-Zombie content are the central protagonists in the series. The motley crew of survivors are not your gun-slinging, machete-wielding, adept zombie-killing protagonists, these are teenagers who quite literally have to grab the object nearest to them and hastily fashion a weapon out of it.
This is also where the show finds its sparingly lighter moments. Friends dole out advice on dealing with high school crushes as bloody zombies snarl in the background (!) But beyond these interactions, the series takes a massive departure from the traditional route of keeping a zombie apocalypse setting somewhat comically chaotic. Instead, directors Lee JQ and Kim Nam-su choose not to shy away from tackling the emotional weight of death and mayhem.
The best example of this is seen when the show deals with the zombification or “turning” of humans. A shot usually reserved to fulfil the horror quota is turned on its head to play out poignantly heartbreaking scenes. In place of a hastened transformation, we get a drawn-out process, in which the horror stems from the now-undead zombie reconciling with the loss of their humanity, often right in front of their classmates.
The directors do not whiplash the audience back into zombie-infested reality; instead we sit with the students in numbing grief as they lose their friends, classmates and teachers, over and over again. The heavy storyline doesn’t feel misplaced, as writer Chun Sung-il richly fleshes out these teen characters to carry forward the complex tale.
Nam On-jo (Park Ji-hu) serves as a narrative protagonist who bands together with her childhood friend Lee Cheong-san (Yoon Chan-young), her crush Lee Su-hyeok (Park Solomon), and the aloof overachieving class President Choi Nam-ra (Cho Yi-hyun) among other classmates to fight zombies and school bullies alike.
Director Lee JQ’s choice to cast actors “unfamiliar to the audience” pays off masterfully.
The makers also ensure that the layered storytelling does not come at the cost of high-adrenaline action scenes, jump scares and well-executed VFX gore. Mirroring the title sequence, the directors slowly descend the audience into a zombie-filled reality, and the series conveys the same visually. What starts off as a brightly-lit, vividly colourful school, eventually transforms into a nauseatingly dull place with the colour saturation dialed back, as the virus spreads.
When required, the filmmakers also immerse us into the zombie experience. The cinematography during the zombie-human confrontation scenes moves fast, never quite fixating on a single character, which makes for quite unsettling viewing. It is havoc heightened for the students, as well as the audience watching, as we learn along with them, who survived and who didn’t.
Another unconventional directorial choice comes in the form of how the show is paced out. With 12 episodes, each almost an hour long, the story stretches out the events of each day over multiple episodes. The material to fill this time comes from the pockets of survivors it creates throughout the city.
Though the storyline follows a core group of students trapped in high school, we are also given glimpses of a politician scrambling to escape her office; a social media influencer trying to farm the crisis for viral content; and two police officers, mismatched in their levels of courage, racing to retrieve the antidote.
These different dynamics are crafted for the series to also address multiple systemic issues. With the origin of the zombie virus itself rooted in a history of bullying, the school becomes ground zero for the show to explore social class hierarchies.
Additionally, for the senior students of Hyosan High, the zombie apocalypse does not even figure as a priority stressor. With the university entrance exams looming over, Park Mi-jin, a student, laments, “It’s impossible for me to get into college even if I live,” while practicing her zombie killing techniques.
The dynamic between how the State handles this crisis and its effect on students also serves as a microcosm for how authorities react to apocalyptic situations. Unfortunately, this is also where the plot wavers a bit. The series often attempts to pack in too much, as it stretches two separate storylines involving teenage pregnancy and sexual assault across multiple episodes. Not enough time is spent on either narrative to create meaningful conclusions or provide these characters with a kinder, more humane ending.
Ultimately, in a genre teeming with Hollywood’s undying need to provide the perfect post-apocalyptic male-hero zombie killer tale, South Korea has bravely put forth a story of survival. Oscillating between the alive and the undead, the show makes an impact by centering the fact that endurance doesn’t always mean strength, sometimes it is born out of repeated acts of kindness.
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