JP Nunez
I was way more hyped for Gangnam Zombie than I usually am for zombie films. While I do enjoy this subgenre, I think most zombie movies tend to be very similar. They pretty much all tell the same basic story, and the monsters don’t change all that much from film to film. It often feels like you’re watching the same movie over and over, so I don’t normally get super excited for new zombie films the way I do for, say, haunted house movies or creature features. But Gangnam Zombie was different. The trailer promised that this film would put a unique martial arts spin on the standard zombie formula, and as a former martial artist myself, I couldn’t wait to see it.
Gangnam Zombie was directed by Lee Su-seong, and it stars Ji Il-ju, Park Ji-yeon, and Cho Kyung-hoon. It’s a horror comedy that takes place in Seoul, South Korea, and it centers around a man named Hyeon-seok, a former backup member of the national taekwondo team. He currently works for a struggling YouTube channel with just a handful of employees, and his boss is kind of a jerk.
He leads a fairly humdrum existence, but one day, when a zombie outbreak makes its way into his office building, his life becomes a lot more exciting. Hyeon-seok and his coworkers find themselves in the fight of their lives (quite literally!), and he has to use his martial arts skills to fend off the seemingly never-ending horde that’s dead-set on tearing them apart.
If you’ve ever seen a zombie movie, that plot synopsis probably sounds very familiar. Like I said, pretty much all of these films tell the same basic story, and Gangnam Zombie is no different. What sets this one apart from the generic mass of Romero wannabes is its humor and action, so let’s talk about those elements first.
To begin, we have the humor. On the whole, it gives the movie a certain charm, but that charm ultimately feels very disposable. To be fair, Gangnam Zombie does have a few jokes that work brilliantly. For example, there’s a really funny moment towards the end of the movie that involves dentures, and that scene made me literally laugh out loud.
There are a couple of other genuinely hilarious gags scattered throughout the film as well, but by and large, the jokes here aren’t quite up to par. At best, they usually just make the characters and their interactions eminently watchable, but they rarely rise above that absolute bare minimum. Aside from a few standouts, the gags are probably not going to stick with you after the credits begin to roll, so even though the comedy is decent enough in the moment, it’s ultimately pretty forgettable.
Moving on to the action, this element of Gangnam Zombie is also a bit of a mixed bag, but overall, the good ends up outweighing the bad. First and foremost, I have to say that Ji Il-ju, the actor who plays Hyeon-seok, is a legit action star. Like I said before, I’m a former martial artist myself, and taekwondo is actually one of the martial arts I practiced when I was younger. I did it for about 15 years, so I know a good kick when I see one. And let me tell you, this guy is awesome. He executes his moves as effortlessly and flawlessly as just about anyone, so I totally believed that Hyeon-seok was a former backup for the national taekwondo team.
But despite that, I did have an issue with the action here. Even though Ji Il-ju is great, the cinematography doesn’t quite do him justice. Like way too many action movies these days, this one employs a lot of cuts during its fight scenes, and that diminishes the experience. Granted, it’s not so bad that it ruins the film, but the action would’ve been a lot better if the movie had used a smoother, more John Wick-esque style of cinematography.
Because the humor and the action are fairly mixed bags, I have to say that Gangnam Zombie doesn’t quite stand out from the undead pack the way I wanted it to. Sure, it has its share of memorable moments, but on the whole, it very much feels like a typical zombie flick. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not every movie has to be Pontypool or Anna and the Apocalypse. There’s nothing wrong with a fun ride that competently executes the standard genre tropes we’ve come to know and love, so as long as Gangnam Zombie does that, it should be fine.
But unfortunately, that’s exactly what sinks this movie. The zombie makeup and the acting feel a bit amateurish, so no matter how funny some scenes were, and no matter how much I enjoyed the taekwondo action, I simply couldn’t get past the mediocre zombies.
It feels like the filmmakers behind Gangnam Zombie focused so much on the things that would set the film apart that they forgot the basics. They tried so hard to make a good martial arts zombie movie that they forgot they had to start by making a good zombie movie, so at the end of the day, I’m sad to say that I wouldn’t recommend this film. You might get a kick out of it if you’re a hardcore zombie fanatic, but for the rest of you, I’d suggest skipping it and watching something else instead.
Gangnam Zombie is set to come out digital, Blu-ray, and DVD on September 26.
