All of Us Are Dead: an in-depth critique

[@PixelaDay]

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[@superquokka]

Na-yeon's arc perfectly encapsulated what frustrated me the most with this show's treatment of the character drama and politics. This video helped me articulate why. There's often a kernel of something compelling there, but it just takes a backseat to zombie chaos. And in the end, you're not left with any satisfying stories of redemption or coherent social commentary.

[@PolliitoAle]

I don't think Na-yeon was ever meant to have redemption? For me, it shows how you can make rushed, bad decisions based on petty feelings that end up being unforgivable. She killed her purpose. Maybe it was the situation, feelings on edge, she didn't completely encapsulate what her actions would mean for everyone, but she did it, he was dead and she was alone. And yes, she regretted and wanted to try to do better, but she never managed to do it. She took to many bad decisions and wasted one too many chances with the group, and now we'll never know what her true potential was or if they could have forgiven her... and that's life. Not everyone gets a shot at redemption or forgiveness. Sometimes, your own actions might not leave room for it.

[@superquokka]

I think that's fair. I guess my thought was that they seemed to be investing in her character, via the teacher sacrificing herself for her and revisiting her hiding in the back room throughout a few episodes, and it didn't really pay off? Obviously, you don't want to redeem her in a way that seems to forgive her actions, but I still felt there could have been more there. Plus there was the whole subtext of class politics that could have been more fleshed out. Perhaps Lee Yoo-Mi just brought so much compelling emotionality to her role, which ending up making me expect too much.

[@PolliitoAle]

@scottscallion6256 no no, I absolutely agree that it seemed like they were building up to something. But to me it seemed to be on purpose? Like, it was meant to be frustrating, bc that's life 😅

[@superquokka]

@@PolliitoAle Ah, true. Thinking about it more, you are probably right. There were a few of those situations in the show for me, so it makes sense if it was intentional. I guess that means they succeeded in frustrating me haha 🤔

[@bookdeannow]

They could have trimmed 4 episodes and it would have helped it alot. The class room scenes went on and on and on and onnnn

[@demonicbladez]

So something very interesting that I didn't pick up on, but one of my friends did, was that in South Korea this idea you mentioned of kids being failed by society is unfortunately a large theme in Korea specifically. in 2014 there was a ferry, the MV Sewol which sunk with around 500 high school students. Becuase of incompetence by the captain/crew, and partially because of a failure in administration, most of these kids ended up drowning to death. I did some research after my friend told me about this and It's kinda abhorrent the similarities real people in power had with the principal of this show, willing to further endanger kids because they wanted to save face ALSO, I'm not sure how much of this is the webcomic and how much of this is the show itself, but scenes like when they each took turns to send messages to their loved ones, happened in real life on the MV Sewol, a lot of footage of what happened inside the ferry is on youtube actually. Some other things that this show/webcomic lifted from the tragedy was the idea of the lovers that tied their hands together, which happened on the ferry, when two lovers tied their life jackets together to not drift apart. The ribbons they tie onto the tree in the show was also done after the tragedy in real life to remember the victims. Honestly when I researched some of what happened on the ferry disaster I was kinda shocked that those things really happened in real life. When it happened in the show, some of the elements that I made fun of for being too melodramatic were lifted directly from what happened in the tragedy.

[@PixelaDay]

Thanks, I had no idea! I loved the camera scene, that's heartbreaking to hear it was based on a real story.

[@Laytonmario]

Nice, very excited to watch this one. I dropped the show halfway through, because I felt it got dragged out too much but I really liked all the zombie actors and the sheer amount of them you get to see during the outbreak in the school.

[@ShahStark]

The kids mother who’s ran past so many zombies seeing her sons zombefied friend and calling out to him just so she can die for shock value effectively killed the show for me. The initial chaos of the outbreak in the high school was the most interesting part and everything after that was downhill.

[@PixelaDay]

Oh gosh yeah I hated that bit

[@lovelace4512]

That’s how I felt about on-jo’s dad. He had plenty of time to get out with them. Such an unnecessary sacrifice after all the fighting he did to get to her

[@demonicbladez]

I haven't watched the vid yet, but I watchpartied this with some friends when it came out and we were taking it seriously at first but by the end we were just roasting the show🤣

[@PixelaDay]

I feel that may be the best way to watch it

[@Tokyoriot36]

Great video, I think you tied your own experience in very well and I know that's hard to do for strangers. Great work and I hope you keep putting out videos as long as it works for you!

[@srfattori]

I'm really not well versed into South Korea society as a whole, I met Korean artists, a few game developers, and had my usual intake of their amazing pieces of art they kept pumping up into the worlds' vein from the past 20 years. What I see is such an amazing brutal sincere look at the structures that runs things, and yet, still such a conservative strict place from afar, yes, I'm blinded by ignorance of a western with a couple of youtube essays under my belt to justify any take on sociology issues. But how come a place produces so much good critiques of itself and yet, still not accidentally shake things up, Captalism really does turn everything into grey goo of consumerism, right? I'm not surprised, i just, thought that things like that would be "Barbiethemovielized" into making society problems being solved by individualistic endeavors, success tramples every wrongdoing of capitalism, the final prove them wrong mentality that manifest at winning their game instead of stop playing. Here another great critique but dropped into a sea of a zeitgeist that seems to be immune to change. Since I'm still an outlooker, westernized (even after living in the middle east for almost 6 years, i was culturally alphabetized by the west, it puzzles me this level of anger dosent spills up more into what we end up seeing about their day by day. I hope all those feelings comes from my ignorance. really hope so.

[@nichtschwert3307]

Boy howdy, the sound designers must have gone through so much celery.

[@Zeph101theoriginal]

Wow, love the various ost choices for this video, thanks for helping me internalize my own thoughts for this show.

[@PixelaDay]

Thank you for watching and leaving your thoughts! ❤️

[@Matt2D2Music]

I wanted to like this show SO BADLY.

[@ari_metal95]

Great review. Imo the show would have definitely been better with less and shorter episodes (idk why nowadays so many shows feel the need to make 70min episodes). Also it definitely tried too hard sometimes and as you said some shots were really good but just the wrong one for the current situation. Also it felt more like a series for children than for grown ups at times.

[@rerunx5]

Well done video. Keep up the great work

[@oh-no-not-me]

God, Na-yeon killing Gwi-nam in that episode for such dumb reasons really hurt me.

[@Danpungip]

You’re confusing the character

[@rainworldenthusiast]

This was the first show I watched on Netflix in years (was visiting family and had to balance out my mom's kdramas lol). The start was weird, but the societal commentary absolutely hooked me (and the zombies ngl). I was a couple episodes in where things started to go south, and by the end I was just watching for the sake of watching. Your critiques really summed up what I felt was wrong with the show. What did you think of the teaser for a second season at the end? I'm not sure what it would even be about. Regardless, excellent commentary and production value. Looking forward to more content!

[@PixelaDay]

Thanks for the lovely comment! There’s only so much k-drama one can take 😂 Given what they’ve set up I’d guess season 2 will be more mediocre drama but who knows!

[@kanalkucker14]

Thank you for this video and opening up about your past!

[@PixelaDay]

You're welcome. Thank you for watching :)

[@Furore2323]

You're not alone. Thank you.

[@Mr.Ben1888]

The most scareist part is kim hyeon ju going to the hospital it like the most brutal thing she also broke her own spine and was walking like a horror spider❤

[@HoneyBat]

I loved this ^.^ Train to Busan is one of my favourite movies so I was hopeful about All of Us Are Dead; it's a shame they didn't root it more in the characters rather than spectacle but it's good to know what kind of approach to watch it with. Still, hopefully it'll inspire other works with that expands on what it dropped! I love that zombies are becoming, idk, more versatile monsters though. It's always really cool charting how different creatures mythologies change to highlight different social issues. I'm definitely checking out the comic though!!

[@FloydParker-wu9ro]

I love every part of it. And the frustration is a part of it. At the very end they choose to go into another building instead of the woods that is my only critique.. but it had to be that way filming in the woods is boring. Lol

[@QuestingRefuge]

I've been torn on diving into this one. I was really hoping it was a movie at first lol Feels like there's a lot of missed potential with focusing on kids

[@bennettcarlson3974]

This is a show that felt like it would have been massivly improved if the episode count was halved

[@Zeph101theoriginal]

YES, the weirrrrd fetishization of the violence felt like a bad gorey anime, it felt really gross and took me out of the whole thing immediately.

[@WITHOUT_HESITATION_SIIIIIIIIR.]

All of us are stupid.

[@gilgamesh310]

17:20 Seems awfully similar to how Neon Genesis Evangelion throws in completely meaningless religious ‘symbolism’.

[@davil.5608]

yup. "it looks cool" is the reason lmao. Evangelion is amazing but I always laugh at the reasoning for it's inclusion

[@limediam]

I think the comic is better in everyway its No love f.cking drama its just a scary comic

[@ЮстинаТян-ж3ь]

Oh my god

[@vagabundorkchaosmagick-use2898]

I'll watch the series, then I'll return here.

[@Piloe]

What’s ur verdict?

[@vagabundorkchaosmagick-use2898]

@@Piloe I didn't even finish the first episode. I didn't like what I watched. I don't enjoy neither zombies nor teenagers any more, save in rare cases, and this had both XD.

[@cloverlake2599]

omg pixal a day

[@thehandoftheking3314]

What did the military do wrong in your opinion? I think AOuAD has one of the best military dipictions in Zombie Media

[@PixelaDay]

Really? I'm not sure how you can watch this show and think the military are portrayed well. They either abandon or hamper the kids and their parents numerous times, and nearly kill them all when they bomb the entire city. It's not even my opinion, the show just very clearly does not portray them in a good light

[@thehandoftheking3314]

@PixelaDay I don't see it. When they are brought in the military set up an effective perimeter of the city, that alone is a difficult take, they launch rescue missions into the city for as long as practicable. As for "abandoning" the children, when they arrive the special forces are on an Asset Retrieval Mission, the Laptop takes absolute priority as it should, after they complete the Retrieval they are going to Evac the kids, but back at The Quarantine Zone they discover an Asymptomatic carrier inside the camp. So rather than risk bringing more in they have to leave the kids, and remember that's a good idea because one of them is an Asymptomatic Hambie. As for impeding the parents, they are in a Quarantine, of course they want them to stay in the QZ, it's only logical. When they discover there is no actual cure the military are ordered to destroy the outbreak and they do so using technology and the lowest risk to reward plan they can. Smart again. But they know innocent people will be killed too. Its why the general tops himself. The military does very little if anything wrong from their PoV. You might not like it, or call it moral from the civilian view, but I still think they were right.

[@FloydParker-wu9ro]

If you say that the initial breakout scene in the high school was the most interesting thing for you then I’m sorry you have ADD. The rest of it is character building so you can care who lives or dies part of watching a good horror flick. To me the first part is when the professor actually reveals what it is and what we’re dealing with.

[@FloydParker-wu9ro]

All of you are too critical South Korea gets it right when it comes to zombies. I don’t know how they did it, but they revived some thing that was getting boring and made it new again.

[@Mr.Ben1888]

And pin me plz😊