Directed by: Kim Sung-hoon (김성훈)
Starring: Hyun Bin (현빈), Jang Dong-gun (장동건), Jo Woo-jin (조우진), Jeong Man-sik (정만식), Lee Sun-bin (이선빈), Kim Ui-Seong (김의성)
Review: With the worldwide success of 2016’s Train to Busan, Korea’s first big budgeted zombie film starring one of the country’s most well-known heartthrobs in Gong Yoo, Rampant most likely hoped to piggyback off that success by pitting two other top contenders for “most handsome” (Hyun Bin & Jang Dong-gun) against each other in another unique zombie offering. With the gimmick in Train to Busan being that the zombies and main cast were stuck on a high speed train, Rampant hopes to draw attention with its historical Joseon (pre Korea) setting and swordplay action. But where Train to Busan excelled, Rampant finds itself suffering from weak storytelling and a bad case of identity crisis.
Fresh off the success of last year’s blockbuster hit Confidential Assignment, director Kim Sung-hoon returns with superstar Hyun Bin (The Negotiation, Confidential Assignment) in an effort storm the box office once again with his new film Rampant. This time around Hyun Bin stars as Prince Lee Chung who is returning to a Joseon in crisis after receiving a letter from his brother summoning him home.
Prince Lee is accompanied by his oddball eunuch companion Hak-su played by Jeong Man-sik (Asura: City of Madness) who refers to the prince as MaMa (perhaps a title of respect?). Quickly after setting ashore, they discover the area of Jaemulpo to have been completely decimated by what appears to be plague. But soon they learn that the disease is far worse and villagers have actually become afflicted with a zombie like virus that spreads to others when bitten. So their quest towards the palace becomes sidetracked as Prince Lee finds himself suddenly entrenched in the effort to contain the outbreak as he allies himself with Sargent first class Park (Jo Woo-jin) and markswoman Duk-hee (Lee Sun-bin).
As if zombies weren’t enough of an evil force to contend with, Jang Dong-gun (V.I.P., Taegukgi) who plays high-ranking court official Kim Ja-jun has an evil plan of his own that involves using the the mysterious zombie outbreak to his advantage in an effort to shake up palace politics. When Prince Chung’s request for reinforcements brings him to the royal palace, he comes face to face with a Ja-jun now completely consumed with his evil plans for a bloody revolution. So if fending off a hungry horde of zombies running rampant wasn’t difficult enough, Prince Chung must also find a way to maintain balance in the kingdom.
Rampant brings last month’s Monstrum to mind, a monster movie set during the same historical period and in practically the same location for its major sequences, primarily the royal palace. The major gimmick of both films being their time period and setting as the ideal candidate for giving a classic movie genre a new spin. And as in Monstrum, it seems like the creative approach to storytelling stopped after its concept was conceived.
Zombies appear to have been simply cut and pasted into a generic tale of good and evil, which is perhaps mildly acceptable for a simple zombie romp. I just wish Rampant made a stronger push towards being a serious genre contender rather than a clumsily put together commercial mess of a movie. Serious gore/thrill route? No. Comedy gore/thrill route? No. Action gore/thrill route? Mild. As with Monstrum, Rampant looks and sounds the part but fails to find something particularly new to add to the genre, causing it to fade away from memory soon after it finishes.
Putting the thinly written script aside, performances in Rampant are quite solid for what the actors have to work with. Hyun Bin is more than awesome as the blood-soaked savior prince as he hacks and slashes through putrefying zombie flesh with his extra large double-edged sword. This honorable warrior type character seems a much more fitting role for the actor in comparison to his role as vengeful hostage taker in last month’s The Negotiation. And although quite one dimensional, Jang Dong-gun exudes appropriate levels of evil as his sinister plot slowly comes to fruition making the final showdown quite watchable if not just a tad boring.
The supporting cast is fun and numerous but hardly necessary. Jeong Man-sik takes his duty of comic relief a bit too far at times causing for some awkward shifts in tone. The beautiful Lee Sun-bin as the crackshot bow & arrow wielder is oddly similar to Hyeri’s character in Monstrum, even rivaling her archery feats, and is able to make quick work of the bloodthirsty beasts with swift and accurate head-shots as she prances along the rooftops. But when she’s needed most, she fails to take the shot necessary to make crucial saves and causes the party to say goodbye to some of its closest friends, adding to the growing list of emotional contrivances towards the films end. Jo Woo-jin as the leader of the Jaemulpo resistance brings the strongest support to the team through both his standout performance as well as onscreen feats as the decisive and brave patriot soldier.
It was unfortunate though that the plot called for many of the supporting characters to be left behind as Hyun Bin heads to the palace alone in his efforts to secure reinforcements for Jaemulpo. Even in some of the larger scale battles, Hyun Bin takes care of most of the dirty work himself. More scenes with the group working together as a tight-knit fighting force would have been warmly welcomed.
Where Rampant fails the most is unfortunately in the area it makes its name from, the zombies. The creatures are actually more like zombie vampire hybrids, seemingly undead and moving their contorted bodies convulsively, these creatures grow fangs and can only operate at night because the sunlight burns their flesh. They also are extremely bloodthirsty and prefer the jugular vein for optimal feeding. The hybrid idea is quite nice but the sense of danger these demons of the night are supposed to bring is woefully inconsistent.
At some moments the zombies will be climbing walls and flying from the rooftops like terrifying vampire ninjas while at other times they’ll be just limping around aimlessly like Quasimodo as the characters are able to pass through large hordes of them rather easily. Also, as the zombies’ numbers begin to increase and the creatures move in large waves of death over and under the palace grounds, the physics of the horde just don’t feel right as they are hardly able to overcome even the slightest of resistance. The creatures of Rampant fail on a general level to bring anything new to the ever-growing body of zombie horror.
Okay forget the horror aspects of the zombie genre and just give us Hyun Bin in full Dynasty Warriors mode as he hacks and slashes through the zombie horde and lets have us a zombie martial arts film! This could have been the saving grace for Rampant if it had been able to manage one or two extended and dedicated martial arts segments that gave viewers a moment where they could really nod in appreciation of the spectacle, or perhaps have given an excuse to make an audible cheer or two with a glorified and meaningful decapitation to mark the end of a long and culminating struggle. Instead, while the fight choreography features some fun moments of flair (mostly all can be seen within the trailer), the package as a whole is lackluster and will leave most wanting for something greater.
Rampant manages light entertainment during its fairly predictable two hour Joseon zombie romp. Seeing zombies lay waste to the royal palace while wearing hanboks (traditional Korean dress) and other traditional Korean garb is quite pleasing to the eye for originality sake. But Rampant is merely a surface level kind of movie, well timed for a Halloween release in some territories perhaps. And if Halloween remake films aren’t your thing, Rampant should be enough to cover the bases this year but stops far from ever making it to home plate. SCORE: 5.5/10
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