Starring Hyun Bin and Dong-Gun Jang. Rampant is a Korean horror set in Korea during the Joseon dynasty. Tensions between the king, his minister of war, and the King’s sons are set in motion only to be interrupted by a zombie plague outbreak.
It took me a while to finally watch this but I got to flex my martial arts horror legs once again with Rampant. In the same vain and quite similar to Kingdom, Rampant is set in Korea during the Joseon dynasty.
The movie starts with a ship being attacked by Korean soldiers. The soldiers venture below deck in search of guns. Guns were quite a new invention back then and hailed as the possible turning point in war. One of them spots something and starts rummaging further into the cargo. He gets attacked by a zombie and is saved by his comrades. We next see him in a rowing boat heading back to land, their mission complete. He is grasping a bite mark on his face. I think we can guess where this is heading.
The next day he looks on death’s door, staggering
about and feeling insanely hungry, eating tons of food. That night next to a young child he finally turns into one of the undead. His partner enters seeing him eating something, he turns around to show her the horror which he has become and pounces on her as well. After this, he breaks out of the house and quickly attacks the closest villager.
So now we have our zombie outbreak.
Cut back to before the ship was attacked. A soldier is in negotiations with the ships’ captain for the guns onboards. The soldier stumbles upon a very sick and monstrous-looking man in a cage. The captain tells him he’s still a man for now but will become a demon tomorrow. The soldiers are part of a group, angry at the king for submitting to the Qing dynasty and installing Qing soldiers throughout the palace. They simply want to drive out the Qing soldiers. The minister of war Kim Ja-Joon (Dong-Gun Jang) discovers their plot, imprisons them, and attacks the ship for the guns. Upon revealing this to the King and framing them as rebels the king’s son, the crown prince owns up to being the leader of the group. He sacrifices himself and begs the king to spare his men.
Enter our main Protagonist, the crown prince’s brother and King’s other son prince Lee Chung (Hyun Bin). Being left out of the order of succession and growing up in Qing. Chung hears of his brother’s death so returns. Chungs now dead brother left instructions for his wife and child to be protected by Chung should he die. Chung and his companion Hak-Su, land in the village of Jemulpo which is deserted and looking like it’s been through a war. While investigating the village the two are confronted and attacked by assassins sent by minister Kim and other ministers who are planning a coup.
The battle attracts the attention of the village’s new inhabitants, ravenous zombies. Much like Kingdom, the zombies are fast, nasty looking, and afraid of sunlight. They can only be killed by decapitation, a sword in the head or heart. Once bitten and killed, people don’t take long to turn.
As the movie progresses, we are introduced to the rebel villagers and the Prince venturing to the palace to explain to his father about the zombie outbreak and requesting an army to wipe them out.
The evil minster Kim even goes as far as to infect a concubine to infect the King. There is eventually a huge outbreak in the castle leading to quite an epic battle. All the characters are skilled swordsmen’s pulling off some quite spectacular moves. Lee Chung has quite a large sword that he puts to good use. There’s plenty of blood and heads getting loped off for horror fans.
Comparing this to Kingdom is a no brainer, it is very similar and no doubt Kingdom in heavily inspired by Rampant. The sets, the palace, and costume design are all excellent, looking very realistic with truly beautiful cinematography. The action can be fast and frantic although the battles against the zombies didn’t seem quite a struggle as in Kingdom. Trying not to spoil too much, what happens to minister Kim kind of confused me a little. He gets bitten but sort of half turns into a zombie, looking a bit zombie-like but maintaining his senses and able to walk amongst them. He can also take damage like one and carry on fighting.
In conclusion, Rampant is not quite as good as Kingdom. Rampant doesn’t say how the first zombie came to be whereas Kingdom fully explains where the zombies came from and how the plague has mutated. Rampant is your typical zombies just exist and no one knows why story. The Korean movie market has been on fire lately and this is certainly up there with other Korean bold movies. If you liked Kingdom or love zombie it’s worth a watch but don’t be expecting Train to Busan. Rampant is available to buy off Amazon now. Check out the Rampant trailer below.
Rating 2.5/5 belts
