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“…summarizing many messages as well as profound lessons about the human heart conveyed to the audience, especially on the very appropriate occasion of the Covid pandemic that has been passing through this humanity.”
The zombie theme always attracts the audience from the interesting stories exploited from it and talking about zombie movies, Korea cannot be absent on this race. Not stopping at the scary image of these quirky creatures, K-Drama always knows how to exploit and expand the content in a more diverse way. After the success of the zombie-themed historical drama Kingdom , in 2021 tvN released the drama ” Happiness: A Poisonous Apartment”, promising the next explosion of this series. .
Happiness revolves around a strange disease happening in a city in Korea, when infected people will become thirsty for water and more terrible than thirst for human blood. Yoon Sae Bom (Han Hyo Joo) is a terrorist agent, in order to be able to buy an apartment for civil servants, she faked a marriage with her best friend from high school, Jung Yi Hyun (Park Hyung Sik). The day they moved into a new house was also the time when the epidemic broke out here. Colonel Han Tae Suk (Jo Woo Jin) – the commander of the operation, blocked the apartment building to look for antibodies. 12 episodes is a Happiness journey that takes viewers to witness a miniature society happening in an apartment building, where the true nature of people is revealed when facing urgent situations during the pandemic.
Happiness right from the first episodes has impressed viewers with the horror zombie images. The zombies are carefully shaped, the moving part is flexible enough to make viewers shiver. The point that makes the film different from other movies of the same genre is that after a short time of losing cognitive control, they can still return to normal people. If other movies have the usual mission of instantly killing the undead when they transform, then Happinessthat is unlikely to happen. When we have to face the pain of our fellow human beings, our loved ones, even though they are infected, there is still a chance for cure. The film has a way of posing a problem worth pondering, when it forces us to choose between protecting our own lives or should we help others when they are cornered?
The very new idea of Happinessattracted viewers right from the opening episodes, but the appearance of the undead is just a stepping stone for the film to “borrow” it to portray social reality. A society with all classes, classes as well as different types of people with different personalities. Just like the two main policemen who always protect justice and care for everyone, the two brothers and sisters who write stories also stand for justice and in the end they are also the ones who hold an important role. In addition, the dark corners of people are also revealed through a number of characters such as the aunt representing the apartment building, the person who trusts the authority and high position, the intellectual classes who only think of personal interests and hope. want to overthrow other people like the doctor uncle, the lawyer husband. Even family elements are integrated through characters such as the child Seo Yoon, the young man who livestreams.
Happiness ‘s supporting characters are quite spread, but all have a certain role, each character shows viewers a representative image of all kinds of people in periods of social crisis. is a pandemic. However, the characters of the film are built with “one color” nuances, when the main characters are “buffed” excessively, everything is staged for the two main characters to see. Almost perfect in every way. And the villains are similar, they are seen as cruelly evil in every way, but the motivation and psychology of change are sometimes not enough to convince the audience.
In addition to exploiting new ideas and bringing many interesting stories, Happiness has brought viewers more interesting experiences of the zombie series. But besides that, the plot of the film also leaves many entanglements and contains a lot of “jellions” in the editing process. The characters change their minds all the time, but the happenings are made quite sketchy, it doesn’t help the audience understand for the character they’re watching.
Next, the problems in disease prevention taking place in the world outside the apartment building are portrayed too vaguely, if not do not contribute much to the film’s circuit. No one would let a person with antibodies useful to the whole country live in an apartment building full of infected people. And most of all, the hasty ending of the film is the most regrettable point, after all the premise set to such a climax, there is a startling ending that can’t be more sloppy.
In general, ignoring a few unfortunate flaws of Happiness , this Korean zombie movie is still worth watching. It has summarized many messages as well as profound lessons about the human heart conveyed to the audience, especially on the very appropriate occasion of the Covid pandemic that has been passing through this humanity.
