To zombie apocalypse fans alike, I think that Rampant‘s plot is going to be a lot interesting considering that South Korea did use a juxtaposing mix of genre’s in this one, possibly surpassing the uniqueness that ‘Train to Busan‘ had.

Surely, there’s nothing more intriguing than mixing zombie thriller, historical fiction and political war in one single movie. That should be the absolute and almost impossible made possible recipe that will surely bring in patrons that once loved the first-ever Korean zombie film two years ago that took over the world.

But the real question is: ‘is ‘Rampant’ able to surpass or at least come on par with ‘Train to Busan’?

Brought by the same studio as ‘Train to Busan’ and directed by Kim Sung Hoon that brought to us well-acclaimed 2017 action film ‘Confidential Assignment‘, surely ‘Rampant’ will not disappoint.

The Story:

Prince Ganglim (Hyun Bin) goes back to Joseon after a long political imprisonment abroad in the Qing Dynasty. His sudden return was due to the last will that he received from his befallen brother, the crown prince (Kim Tae Woo), who he thought died from suicide. It had stated that as a last favor for Ganglim to retrieve the crown princess and their unborn child and bring them back with him to Qing.

Ganglim’s long absence made everything in Joseon so estranged to him that he had shown great disinterest about the darkness that’s looming over his birth country. He did not wish to come back for anything else other than saving the crown princess in honor of his late brother. So, after encountering ‘night demons’ that had been plaguing Jemulpo and being saved by Park Eulryoung’s (Jo Woo Jin) group from being mugged by them, Ganglim still refused to cooperate willingly though the peasants that had been waiting for him were begging for them to be saved by the prince.

Upon seeing though the chaos and terror these ‘night demons’ caused to his people, though reluctantly, Ganglim agrees to speak to the King to send an army to help those still trapped in Jemulpo.

However, upon his return to the palace, Ganglim is denied his request by the vicious Minister of War Kim Ja Joon (Jang Dong Gun). More so, he ordered for Eulryoung and his gang to be imprisoned for high treachery. A similar incident with the ‘night demons’ happens though as one of consorts who got infected by the plague turns into a night demon and bites the King. Eventually, chaos in the palace starts after this and more people are bitten and unfortunately turned to grotesque looking monsters who feed on human flesh and blood. While Kim Ja Joon sees this as an opportunity to usurp the throne from the King’s bloodline, Ganglim, together with his men, becomes determined to end the long standing plague caused by the ‘night demons’ within the palace walls before it’s too late.

Review:

Premise

I’m giving this film extra points for the plot’s originality. I think that while ‘Train to Busan’ can be a common westerner’s vision of a modern zombie apocalypse, no one would have thought that zombies and historical period can fit in the same picture. Like how can zombies arise in the old period? There’s no way zombies could exist during those times since it will take an uncontrollable virus outbreak situation to create an army of them. So, I think it is also wise of them to call these creatures as ‘night demons’, because the real cause of the infection can be left alone as ‘unknown’, especially that this movie surely left out that very important detail: as to how the first ‘night demon’ caught the condition. It would have been more interesting if we were given a little backstory, but we’re left in the dark, so we should just take what we can.

Night Demons

In terms of the ‘night demons’ or zombies or whatever you want to call them, I think that this film has maintained the same image about zombies that we saw from ‘Train to Busan’: (1) they are sensitive to sound, (2) they go rampant upon hearing sound or upon smelling blood (3) they look grotesque, (4) they are fast, strong and vicious. The only thing I see different is that these zombies hate the sun, because the sun actually hurts them or at least I think so; while the zombies from ‘Train to Busan’ were tamer in the darkness. It is good that the same concept is used to make sure we are not lost in the story, but this actually killed some of the excitement since I was actually looking for something new. I was hoping they’ll depict zombies a little differently. Nonetheless, I have enjoyed the action packed zombie rampage scenes versus Prince Ganglim whose sword fighting skills is so unparalleled that it’s so entertaining he actually killed a whole bunch of them alone and while remaining untouched, though that basically made his role a little predictable.

Characters

The movie itself is actually plagued with cardboard characters that lacked a past, a backstory to back them up. Just like when Ganglim is introduced once his ship lands in Jemulpo, though many was said in the plot about his past and his reason for going back to Joseon, the scenes itself did not give me much information about this, so I was confused why Ganglim was coming back from Beijing.

What I like about this character the most, though, is his character development: from a vain and self-centered jerk who is more interested with vices and women he left back in Qing, Joseon molded him to become righteous and a person that thinks more of his people above all else. It made him deserving of becoming a King through his actions.

There’s even one part along the end that his lines really made me cry. He said something about it not being true that a King should be above his people, because the people are who makes the King. So, the King should protect his people. I guess, it’s at that point that he has accepted the responsibility of becoming king after Joseon rudely taught him how to be one.

I think that Hyun Bin is able to own Ganglim’s character in this movie. He has owned the spotlight all throughout and because most of the action-packed scenes are centered towards him, it highlighted even more Hyun Bin’s commendable portrayal, though it is inarguable that his character leans on the more predictable side despite the zombies’ efforts on trying to bring him down. I think the character actually beats the purpose of such a grotesque zombie thriller, but I guess since I’m more of a happy ending person, I’m happy that he did not end up dead during the final scenes; something that I did not get from ‘Train to Busan’.

The other characters, though easy to sympathize with, lacked their own backstories and development in the story, so it was hard to connect relationships among characters and read their minds. So many of them had the potential to be something more. Like for example, Kim Ja Joon who was played by Jang Dong Jun. I think that he has portrayed the role so viciously that the role was so hateable even until his end, but at the same time it missed the opportunity to be something more. I think that the script itself prevented these amazing characters from growing, so I can’t really blame the actors for how they portrayed them.

Theme

I think that though I really enjoyed the movie to the fullest, it is right to say that it lacked consistency when it comes to the themes. There’s the zombie apocalypse and endless chase, gun fights and sword fights that will totally pump up adrenaline in your body, but sometimes it is overcome by the political struggle that period movies like this has. So, we go back and forth from a zombie invasion to a dramatic political war that involves families and vicious foes. Making it a little bit behind ‘Train to Busan’ in this area, since the movie’s theme felt like its everywhere, whereas its former zombie movie sunbae actually focused on a singular item with less dramatization of the situation.

Overall

Though there’s a lot of obvious flaws to this movie and there’s still a long way for ‘Rampant’ to catch up to ‘Train to Busan’ in terms of its overall production and impact, I think that the film overall is really good. Cinematography-wise it’s really dark and grotesque depiction of a zombie plagued Joseon is flawless, believable. The sound effects also added additional suspense to important scenes, especially when it’s about time the leads face their otherwordly flesh-eating foes. The cast is also able to turn a very plot driven story to something more character focused, though there’s a lot of times it’s hard to find a distict characteristic or emotion from them.

Rating this, I’ll give it 4.4 out of 5.0. There were times when I felt like I’m losing the hype I felt before while watching some parts of the movie and when I tthought there’s nothing really extraordinary about this other than the fact we’re seeing zombies in fictitious Joseon, that’s why I’m giving it that kind of score. Other than that, it’s a good watch. I’ll recommend it to you guys at any day.