All of Us Are Dead (2022)

A fun ride with some inconsistencies

Is how I would describe the experience that is All Of Us Are Dead. After feeling let down by Netflix's last few darker K-dramas, my expectations for this were rather low, but looking back on it, I am actually surprisingly pleased with this series.

All Of Us Are Dead is an eye-catching show in many ways. For starters, it definitely didn’t hold back when it came to gore and edge. Which I greatly appreciate actually. I wasn’t familiar with the source material but when I originally read the summary, I was under the impression that a highschool setting meant, that the target audience of All Of Us Are Dead was supposed to be teenagers and that the violence would be accordingly mild. Let me tell you, it is everything but. I can’t remember the last time I saw this many heads rolling and guts spilling out. Truly a sight to behold.
Aside from that, I think this series has pretty solid cinematography. The shot composition was visually stimulating most of the time. I think the simplistic single-camera really shined here. The action- and fight scenes were choreographed surprisingly well. Honestly, the show looks its best when all hell breaks loose. Suspension was high. I was on the edge of my seat throughout numerous scenes.
I really enjoyed the performance of our female protagonist Ohn-jo. She was my favorite character by far but I feel like I am in the minority here, as I have read countless complaints about her being annoying. I actually can’t relate to that sentiment at all, I found it very easy to root for the female lead. I haven’t watched any of the actress's previous work but considering that she is rather young and seemingly inexperienced, I thought she did a pretty convincing job.
I also appreciated the rare moments of comedy (well, most of them, not sure what to make of the two cops, to be honest). They didn’t feel out of place to me, instead, they were much needed to take off some edge from this dark dark drama.
In the series’ more humane moments, feel like I got to connect with most of the cast and got an idea of their dynamic with each other. In a very weird way, I was reminded of The Breakfast Club, the way our group of widely different angsty teens was forced to work and bond together. Just, you know, with more people dying. A lot more. While you have characters getting killed off left and right, most deaths felt impactful, which is difficult to pull off when your body count is this high. This for me signifies that All Of Us Dead did a solid job with setting up its characters and making me care for them, even if their screen time was comparably short.

But this show sadly also has its dull moments. I am not going to list every single plothole, for the sake of avoiding spoilers and also because this isn’t Cinema Sins. Also, unpopular opinion, I don’t care that much about stuff like that. This is a zombie series; my disbelief is already suspended. The only real crime you can commit as a story about the flesh-eating undead, is bore me, which this show definitely did not. Still, you have to accept some level of idiocrasy going into this. If logic is terribly important to you, I imagine that you will be frustrated a lot here. Everyone behaves rather irrationally but I mean, they’re teenagers. That’s what they do. Still, I can understand where the outcry is coming from, multiple moments don’t make a whole lot of sense if you really think about them for longer than a second.
I appreciated All Of Us Are Dead's attempt at social commentary but I don’t know if it was always warranted here. I don’t think zombie films have to be dumb, if you have something important to say, by all means, go ahead. But I think this show tried to say so much, that it ended up conveying very little. Maybe pick a message and stick to that one to avoid feeling like an After School Special. At its best, All Of Us Are Dead’s societal critique felt a bit preachy and on the nose. At its worst, it felt entirely out of place and took me out of the story.
The pacing started off great. The plot was developing fast and I was fully immersed in the experience. And then somewhere along the way All Of Us Are Dead got kind of lost with segments that took up way too much time. The last few episodes felt a bit draggy as a result. I don’t mind the typically ambiguous Netflix ending but since we started off so strong and plot-dense it seems like we got a lot of set-up with comparably little pay-off.
I struggle a bit when it comes to evaluating acting- I can vaguely tell what makes a story good or bad. Or what makes cinematography less or more interesting. I don’t possess the same talent when it comes to performances, it’s even more difficult for me when it’s in a foreign language. But for once I can point at one specific performance and go “Wow that was not exactly great”. That critique goes to the actress of Nam-ra. I am so used to Korean actors doing too much, honestly, overacting is part of the charm when it comes to Asian dramas. Well for the first time ever I witnessed a K-drama actress doing too little, it was honestly kind of puzzling to me. I understand that being stoic is part of the character but Nam-ra’s actress just gave me nothing, absolutely nothing at all. Maybe it’s because most of the time she did not have anything interesting to do, besides saying pseudo-poignant things at the entirely wrong time. Her chemistry with her love interest (who is also a rather bland character) was also close to non-existent, by the end, I honestly shipped her more with our female protagonist.
Speaking of romance, it also belongs to the show’s weaker qualities. I didn’t mind Cheong-sans and Ohn-jo’s developing relationship that much, but maybe this is due to my weakness for the Friends-to-lovers-trope. The love triangle???square??? though, felt entirely unnecessary and took up way too much time. It’s incredible that everyone had time for this petty drama while they had all these zombies to deal with.

I sometimes curse the day Train To Busan premiered. It seems like the existence of the movie alone has made it impossible for people to critique any piece of Korean media with zombies in it, without somehow comparing it to Sang-Ho Yeon's masterpiece. Even in universe, the title has to be somehow referenced, apparently, it’s just unavoidable.
Listen, is this the next Train To Busan? No, absolutely not. But I don’t think it has or tried to be. I think there is an important dissonance between entertaining and objectively great. At its best, All Of Us Are Dead was both but even at its worst I was still having fun, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what really counts?

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