MOVIE DETAILS
Rating: 3.3 out of 10
Director: Soo Sung Lee
Writer: Soo Sung Lee
Star: Ji Il-joo, Park Ji-yeon, Jo Kyoung-hoon
Genres: Horror
Release Date: January 5, 2023 (South Korea)
Gangnam Zombie is the latest single-location horror flick about the walking dead. However, the unnecessarily serious opening sequence does not set the tone for the rest of the movie. Yes, zombie apocalypses are usually taken seriously, but here you should expect more laughs than chills.
On Christmas Eve, an office building in Seoul’s Gangnam District becomes a zombie-infested hellhole. Yet before any flesh-eaters show up, this motley crew of survivors is already fighting to stay alive in a post-Pandemic world. It all starts when two criminals hope to find something valuable inside a shipping container from China only to discover a stowaway cat whose bites turn one of them into patient zero instead. As tends to happen in these movies, the infection spreads and chaos follows.
Gangnam Zombie isn’t the first movie to cash in on the Pandemic, and it probably won’t be the last either. Director/co-writer/producer Lee Soo-seong at least skips over the pre-installed dystopian aesthetic found in other similar films; it’s morose without being bleak. A quick glance at its titular setting might imply that life has returned somewhat to normal in this bustling city, but there’s no ignoring how much occupational uncertainty still remains. From people struggling to make ends meet to a woman putting up with sexual harassment for her career’s sake, this movie presents survival in many forms.
The protagonist of Gangnam Zombie is Hyeon-seok (Ji Il-ju), but he isn’t your typical everyman, this guy used to be a taekwondo champion. Still, his lousy vlog job that doesn’t pay him enough or offer fulfillment makes him relatable enough for us all to root for him. He and his two coworkers can’t make rent thanks to their terrible boss (Choi Sung-min) whose YouTube channel is failing also he can’t seem to keep his pervy hands off of Hyeon-seok’s workmate/love interest Min-jeong (Park Ji-yeon). Add in the office building’s browbeating landlady (Jung Yi-joo) always looking for the money she’s owed, and things were pretty bleak there before the zombies showed up. The movie tries to lighten these realistic moments with humor, but the jokes are as unfunny as they are random.
The movie doesn’t lose sight of what it wants: zombies getting into a building and causing chaos. It’s simple, very simple. The survivors don’t have time to speculate about where they came from, so once Hyeon-seok and his friends see their first scary visitor, the film picks up pace and gives us action. Most set pieces consist of Hyeon-seok beating or kicking undead ass until he gets tired, so tedium sets in fast.
The biggest shortcoming of this movie is easily its zombies. Expect questionable makeup jobs and most bizarrely vampire-like teeth. And when they’re feeding, they don’t always commit to the bit. Equally baffling are the bloodless attacks. The actors do what they can with lively performances, especially by Jo Kyung-hoon as the original zombie who started all this mess; not every one looks as believable as him though.
Even though Gangnam Zombie clocks in at less than an hour and twenty minutes it never feels slow or drawn out. In fact, after seeing how the movie ends many may feel like it’s not long enough. All in all, this is just another uninspired zombie film that fails to bring anything new to the genre. The hero is cool and likeable with some badass moves and a penchant for saving people which does help differentiate it from other recent Korean undead flicks however even he can’t kick this story into overdrive.
Gangnam Zombie on Gomovies Watch Gangnam Zombie for free. To watch Gangnam Zombie click the play button in the player.
Download Gangnam Zombie for free on Gomovies!
To download Gangnam Zombie for free online, go to “download Gangnam Zombie click on the download button.
For more movies like Gangnam Zombie Visit Gomovies.
