Soju’s Movie Reviews: Rampant
It seems like Korea has caught the zombie wave. First was the extremely popular “Train to Busan” movie, then the Netflix Joseon Thriller “Kingdom” And now the Hyun Bin helmed Joseon action piece “Rampant.”
Opening Recap:
Our film opens with a rebel being infected by a Portuguese gun trader with a mysterious illness that he brings home to his village, where he begins to infect and murder those around him.
Meanwhile, the crown prince indicts himself in a plot to overthrow his father and commits suicide after sending a letter to his younger brother (Hyun Bin) who had been living it up in Qing, boozing it up with the locals.
Expecting a grand welcome with a retinue for his return, he and his loyal servant are surprised to find absolutely no one waiting for them, the border town basically a ghost town. A group of men do show up claiming to be their escorts, only to immediately attempt to assassinate him.
And then the Zombies attack.
And this is just the beginning of what is an action-packed saeguk with lots of beautifully choreographed fight sequences, tense political drama and most of all — lots of brain-eating zombies getting bitey with the locals.
Review:
While the cast was stellar featuring Hyun Bin as the prince, Kim Eui Sung as the completely useless King, and Kim Tae Woo as a very brief (far too brief in my opinion) showing as the crown prince, the real star of the show was Jang Dong Gun’s just on the edge of too much showing as the Villain of the show, the Minister of War Kim Ja Joon, making the classic zombie movie villain choice of trying to use Zombies for his own political purposes.
Lee Sun Bin also made a rather fun showing as a female archer and rebel fighting against the zombie hoards named Deok Hee, as well as being a pseudo love interest for Hyun Bin. However there was really no real romantic plotline to speak of, so if you’re looking for a romance you won’t find much of one – mostly just zombies.
To be frank, it’s easy for me to be sucked into a zombie film – I really enjoy them and watch them often. This one is particularly enjoyable because it has beautiful filming and a consistency with the zombies – they’re not quite as smartly malevolent as they were in Train to Busan but seem very much like instinctual and brain-driven creatures. I especially enjoyed the way that they turn into zombies. While it does happen rather quickly, it seems as though they’re going insane and then they just suddenly turn. It was well done.
The filming was lush and gorgeous, and the fight choreography was a beautiful blend of gory and the stylization of modern martial arts films, as well as featuring some shot ramping that would make Zac Snyder wish he could do it so effectively. Another thing I enjoyed about the choreography was the lighting – things might be filmed in the dark but you could always tell what was going on in the shot. It didn’t fall into the trap that many horror films do of using shaky cams or dark lighting to save money on special effects.
All in all, if you’re into horror movies or zombies, you’ll probably love this movie. And if you’re into watching Hyun Bin look handsome while cutting the heads off of zombies you’re also going to be in luck because the film features quite a bit of that.
I give it 4.5 sojus out of 5
