“Avenge my father’s death.“

-Ashin, Kingdom: Ashin of the North, 2021

Who among of you have watched the famous Korean Drama series (which is zombie-based) Kingdom? Well, it has Season 1 and Season 2 which were released in the past few years. During the pandemic, everyone got hooked up in watching the said series until eventually everyone is asking for a sequel.

So this month of July, they released a new entry for the Kingdom, however, this is not a sequel, nor a 12 episode-long series. It’s a prequel movie tackling some unanswered questions left from the S1 & S2. So to those who are expecting that they’ll be seeing the Prince, you won’t coz this is a prequel as I mentioned.

So let’s begin, (well, obviously, spoiler alert again.) The story is about Ashin; For those who have watched the cliff hanger of the last episode of S2, She’s the

female archer lingering around the woods, who seems to know more about the Zombie or the affected dead people. Ashin is played by Jun Ji-hyun who also played the mermaid from the Legend of the Blue Sea, yeah the Lee Min Ho series. Okay before I begin, a recap of the Kingdom. The story of this series is all about a mysterious plant that can make the dead resurrect however, not in human forms anymore, once resurrected by the plant they turn into zombie-like creatures that crave for flesh and attacks every living thing they can smell.

Ashin, on the other hand, is part of a poor tribe and was the only one who was left alive after everyone in their village was killed in a massacre. Later on, she was adopted by the other clans and she served as the spy. Imagine being a child, burying all the bodies alone and working to be able to eat and living in the same place where pigs live, that’s the story of her suffering. She has no one to turn to, she was able to grow up and teach herself how to fight but little did we know, this smart ass girl, is hiding something which I won’t tell you because yeah, even if I spoil, I don’t spoil much.

The Ashin of the North is basically as story where they introduce us to the mysterious plant which started all of the zombie apocalypse, and how it’s made, how it was discovered and what is the purpose of Ashin in the whole Kingdom series. She is definitely giving us this big role aura which I definitely I agree on since I’ve watched it. Now, the only question I have in mind, is how they will follow-up the story, I mean, do Ashin become their ally or their enemy? What will be connection between her and the Crown Prince, played by Ju Ji-hoon? I also read that there will come a solo prequel that focuses on the Crown Prince’s story as well which will begin filming this 2021 and articles said, it will be released by 2023, which is pretty much long wait for all of the fans. I’m looking forward for the production team to work on it and give us the Kingdom Season 3 earlier than expected which was I think will be 2022.

All in all, I liked the prequel, I was able to understand where the plant came from, where the story began, what is the root of this whole apocalypse thing and how can they actually defeat it because as of the moment, we just know that zombies can be killed thru fire or being submerged in the cold water which can cause the worms from the plant die, we saw that in the season, yeah? So what’s in it for the next movies and series for Kingdom? Are they going to make Ashin and the Prince team up or yeah, I was thinking maybe they become rivalries, which is I know is gonna pretty obvious considering the cliff hanger that we also saw on the post credits of the movie.

I will give this 90% wonderroanne rating! I know! I liked it because I was able to make conclusions and possible theories of my own until eventually they will release a new entry for Kingdom.

For those who haven’t watched the series, it’s available in Netflix. Maybe, it’s also best to watch the Ashin of the North first and then start the Kingdom series, after all, this is a prequel.