The trailer for #Alive, the newest zombie film from South Korea, has just been released, and yes, the undead are alive and well in the Land of the Morning Calm.
#Alive is directed by Cho Il-hyung, and is an adaptation of the #Alone screenplay written by Matt Naylor supposedly for Hollywood.
The movie features the casting of Yoo Ah-In, who broke through with Lee Chang-dong’s Burning a couple of years ago, and TV drama star Park Shin-hye of Memories of the Alhambra fame.
A plot everyone can relate to
#Alive tells the story of two people, played by Yoo and Park, who are left trapped in an apartment, while hordes of zombies are prowling about in the building’s every floor and hallway.
How have these people managed to stay alive for long in a zombie apocalypse? As it turns out, Yoo’s character is a gamer who likes to stay home all day, so when the zombie outbreak happened, he never got infected because he never left home.
As for Park, she plays a lady who pays a little more attention to detail than most normal people do, and to her surprise, it has actually worked to her advantage against the living dead.
Two launching posters for movie "#Alive" starring Yoo Ah-In and Park Shin-Hye. https://t.co/ozNol12gZu pic.twitter.com/1YXhRAEh11
— AsianWiki (@AsianWiki) May 18, 2020
Aside from the fact that just about everybody outside their respective apartment units have turned into brain-hungry ghouls, the two also have to deal with other issues related to being stuck in an isolated apartment complex, like the absence of an Internet connection—which frankly speaking, is enough to turn anybody into a zombie—a working cell phone network, and running electricity.
South Korea’s zombie momentum continues
Back in 2016, a little South Korean film called Train to Busan barreled out of nowhere to remind everybody, especially those who may be tired of the repetitiveness of The Walking Dead, that yes, you can indeed inject new life into the zombie genre.
A massive hit, even in international markets, Train to Busan also paved the way for other South Korean tales of the undead in subsequent years.
Last year, streaming giant Netflix had picked up Kingdom, a series full of palace intrigue and sprinting zombies. The show premiered its second season earlier this year to wide acclaim, and a third season is expected to be added to Netflix’s catalog soon.
Even Train to Busan spawned its own movie sequel. Peninsula (full title is Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula) is set four years after the events of the first movie. This time around, the hero of the film is a soldier whose squad must navigate a Korean Peninsula ravaged by rabid biters of the undead kind.
Now #Alive is looking to join the ranks of Train to Busan and Kingdom in finding new ways to explore the zombie genre.
Featured image courtesy of Zorik D/Unsplash