KBS / 2020 / 12 episodes
Genres: horror, comedy
Written by Baek Eun-jin
Directed by Shim Jae-hyun
More information: Wikipedia / HanCinema
Zombie Detective:
A Soul Behind the Makeup
The writer of the story, Shim Jae-hyun, has reinvented the "human-friendly" zombie and crafted a great story around him. As the title suggests, in Zombie Detective, we become part of an investigation whose unique flavor is provided by the exceptional nature of the private detective duo. The man is a recently resurrected zombie who gains access to the identity and office of a murdered private investigator, while the girl who joins him is a reporter for a television program conducting open investigations, whose interviews have put her subjects in danger, leading her career into a crisis. It soon becomes clear that the kidnapping case the girl is working on and the amnesiac zombie's quest to uncover his past point in the same direction.
Not many know that zombie films were by no means always the way we are used to seeing them today in cinemas or on television. Especially at the dawn of the genre in the 1940s, they were not, because back then, these beings stuck between life and death could still be lonely figures—often beautiful, sleepwalking women, inhabitants of haunted houses, voodoo terrors, and the like. The mass-shuffling, moaning zombie horde that only wants to feast is a much later phenomenon, a cinematic reflection of consumer society. From the mid-90s, we primarily owe the "gear shift" of zombies to Far Eastern computer games, as a result of which modern zombies now overrun their prey at a run. In the mid-2000s, the dogma that a zombie is a brainless, personality-less creature also collapsed with the appearance of "romantic zombies" who retained the personality traits and emotional world they possessed while alive, were able to connect with humans, and their appearance was no longer inherently repulsive.
In Far Eastern films, including Korean ones, we are used to them not caring much about genre or even different cultural codes; they are capable of overturning anything and creating something entirely new from irregularities with extraordinary creativity. The writer of Zombie Detective awakens his zombie as the moaning-shuffling type of the classic version, who nevertheless has a personality that, on the one hand, motivates him to return to human existence and, on the other, to integrate into human society. Since this is a difficult task, our always somewhat sad zombie gets involved in countless humorous situations, becoming a genuine comedic hero—besides being seen as a smart and cool investigator.
Our zombie detective, due to his inclination for loneliness, his emotionality and contemplations, and his attraction to a woman, could much more easily be similar to a vampire, but perhaps for the sake of easier movement in daylight, he was written as a zombie after all. Furthermore, he is one whose appearance fits today's zombie clichés, yet his heart beats—which he doesn't even have.
I was fascinated by how director Shim Jae-hyun depicted the scene of the zombie’s awakening. Although we are in a massive junkyard, the landscape is nevertheless picturesque, sufficiently frightening with the circling crows, and it is a great sight as we see the mysterious, enlarged figure of the self-aware zombie only from behind for a long time. At the same time, this scene is already permeated by humor, at least as much as the cigarette smoke permeates the "holey" zombie—who is startled to realize what he has become and, after initial self-destructive attempts, has no idea what to do with himself, but knows one thing for sure: he does not want to become a real, man-eating monster; in fact, if possible, he would rather turn back into a human.
While the forest animals are dwindling and a murder occurs, our zombie—who initially can only shamble and produce inarticulate sounds—trains himself through long and persistent work to be able to live among humans. We get a magnificent comedy in this process; the language learning is particularly worth highlighting. No less so is the ambulance scene, where the patient showing no signs of life nevertheless keeps sitting up. But my favorite is the gag when he throws himself at human food and immediately gets an upset stomach from it. To complete the genre mash-up, our zombie moves in an outfit like the lone heroes of Italo-Westerns, only with more makeup, as he happily discovers the blemish-concealing power of BB cream.
In the story, the girl soon discovers the investigator's secret and rushes to his aid to keep the hungry zombie's man-eating tendencies in check. In his made-up version especially, but even in his "halted decay" form, he is a handsome phenomenon, creating a serious problem in the romantic relationship between the girl and a young policeman, who is nonetheless needed to solve the tasks.
Among the supporting characters, there are three more comic figures: two are the bungling fellows from the neighboring, competing private detective agency, and the third is the girl’s brother-in-law, who, as a film director, is obsessed with zombie movies and is working on the screenplay of his life's masterpiece. Among his previous, moderately successful films, our zombie—a beautiful cinematic joke—happens to sit in on the one titled Fast Train to Busan, and is shocked to notice what wicked human persecution poor zombies are subjected to.
The scenes of the series also satisfy those longing for the thrills of a thriller, in which the characters hold their own and uncover a serious crime, into which the creators even wove a thread referring to Frankenstein. These thrills maintain a good balance with the constantly present comic content, which even allows for our zombie to take a temporary job as a member of a K-pop boy group in zombie costumes for the purpose of earning money. The performed choreography is extremely remarkable, naturally with Choi Jin-hyuk’s peculiar solo.
There is no shortage of moving scenes either; it is possible that in this series we see the only undead with whom we can deeply empathize and cheer for his survival.
Choi Jin-hyuk, portraying the zombie, is a perfect choice for the role; one can hardly imagine an actor more suitable than him. Yet, according to him, he had to fight for the opportunity to play a comedic role because they could not imagine him in such a capacity due to his strong dramatic characters. But he proved them wrong, demonstrating that he was right. His makeup worn as a zombie is perfect, which naturally does not make him repulsive, yet is enough to convey his true being. Choi’s fundamental characteristic is a stoic calm that seems like impassivity, which was a tool for drama in other films, yet here it works brilliantly as a source of humor. At the same time, he performs comedy very robustly in a "zombie-like" way—an example being how he throws himself at raw entrails in the restaurant. Choi Jin-hyuk has enriched his acting palette with an extremely pleasant dash of color, showing a completely new side of himself.
With his female partner, actress Park Ju-hyun, they complement each other excellently, as she possesses as much surplus vitality as our zombie lacks.
The comedic actors who are usually terribly annoying to me (Tae Hang-ho, Lee Joong-ok, Ahn Se-ha, Hwang Bo-ra) are loud and silly here too, but fortunately, they do not over-dominate. Although the story loses some of its momentum around the tenth episode, this is compensated for by the historical film segment variations.
Thus, the series leaves an extremely pleasant impression on the viewers; we haven’t smiled this broadly thinking of a zombie film before. It is possible that we will get a sequel, as the conclusion also functions as a promise of this.
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