Writer Kim Eun-hee Shares Her Inspiration For The Historical Zombie Drama ‘Kingdom’


When Kim Eun-hee first conceived the story behind the Korean zombie drama Kingdom, she did not see it as a TV script. Instead, she conveyed her story in the 2015 web comic, Burning Hell Shiniu Nara, which she created with illustrator Yang Kyung-il.

“I began thinking about the story in 2011, but I thought it would be difficult to be portrayed in a TV series,” said Kim. “That’s why I wrote the story for a web comic series with a comic illustrator I knew.”

Eventually her tale of Joseon-era zombies did inspire a drama series. Kingdom became Netflix’ first original Korean TV series, with the first six-episode season airing in 2019 and the second in March 2020.

“It’s only the basic concepts that were reflected into the story of the series, so there’s not a lot of commonality between the web comic series and the Netflix series,” said Kim.

The story was inspired by the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, which recorded Korean state affairs from 1413 to 1865. The Annals describe tens of thousands of people who died of a mysterious illness and Kim decided to reinvent the plague as a zombie virus. 

“I thought, ‘Maybe I can portray the plague with zombies,” said Kim. “It’ll be a very interesting way to convey the sufferings and pains of the people of that time.’ That’s how I came up with the idea of writing Kingdom.” 

As the drama opens, the King has collapsed and rumors of his death are spreading. The rumors are only half true. While the king did actually die, he also returned as one of the undead, transformed into a monster. To protect their own power, the Queen, played by Kim Hye-Jun and her father, Chief State Councilor Cho Hak-Ju, played by Ryu Seung-ryong, lock him in his royal chambers and refuse to let anyone see him. That includes his son, the Crown Prince, played by Ju Ji-hoon.

The prince’s suspicions make him an even greater threat to those who would usurp his right to the throne. Not only do those in power want to kill him, but, in their efforts to consolidate power, they ignore the hordes of zombies roaming the countryside. When creating those zombies in her web comic and drama, Kim saw a parallel between hungry people driven to desperation and the ravenous undead.

“I was drawn to how tragically desperate they are. I found it pitiful that they’re only left with hunger for food with all of the other desires removed,” said Kim. “But at the same time, the world with zombies seemed like a world where everyone was equal, which was interesting to compare to the real world.”

As gruesome as the zombies seem, the plague is not the real villain in this drama. It’s greed and the lust for power.

“I thought a lot about ‘what is politics’ when I was writing Kingdom,” said Kim. “I wanted audiences to think about the scale and level of the impact of corrupt power on the everyday lives of people.” 

Kingdom was not just Kim’s first zombie story, but also her first historical script. Her successful previous drama Phantom was set in the present. Signal, which won both the 2016 Apan Star Awards and the 2016 Baeksang Arts Awards, was set in the present and not-too-distant past. 

“When I wrote the scripts for crime series set in a modern time like Signal and Phantom, I wished we could go back in time to when security cameras and cellphones didn’t exist because the technologies available now would often make it difficult for me to write a convincing plot related to finding evidence and carrying out criminal investigations. So, I wished I could write a historical drama, but after I started writing one, I was frustrated by the lack of security cameras and cellphones in the world that my story was set in. And the biggest challenge to writing a zombie story set in this particular time was that there were no cars or trains.”

She has been called “the master of genres,” but Kim is not finished with genre exploration. 

“In the future I’d like to write something different from what I’ve already written—I am very much interested in genres of horror, martial arts, and sci-fi.” 

Season 2 of Kingdom promises more zombies and has a lot to say about blood.

“Season 2 is about blood—in fact, it’s not simply about blood, but I wanted to tell a story about bloodlines or lineage,” said Kim. “I have written down ‘what is politics’ on my office board. I wanted to explore what politics is through various devices including the plague. I wanted to express the kind of politics I want to see in the world and the kind of king I would want rather than suggesting what an ideal form of politics is. I thought about what choices people from different social classes would make and how the society would overcome the chaos if an unprecedented plague were to spread in Joseon, which was a highly stratified and unequal society.”

In the second season of Kingdom, the growing number of hungry zombies is sure to upset the stratified state of Joseon society.

 

 

 

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