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The Major Korean Tragedy Which Influenced ‘All of Us Are Dead’
Netflix’s latest zombie series invokes collective traumas specific to contemporary Korean society.
Early reviews have described All of Us Are Dead as “a cross between Train to Busan and Euphoria.” Plenty of connections have been made to AOUAD’s handling of a figurative zombie ‘virus’ and the actual coronavirus which still figures heavily in our daily lives.
What these reviews miss is the extent to which the show invokes quintessentially Korean traumas — traumas which directly relate to the contemporary lived experience of South Korean teens. In this comprehensive review, I hope to surface the cultural contexts which will likely go unnoticed for first-time global viewers.
No spoilers are included in this article.
What is a major similarity between a Netflix zombie show in 2022 and a BTS music video produced in 2017, beyond the obvious? They both pay homage to a tragedy which took place in 2014: the Sewol Ferry Sinking, which killed 304 out of its 476 passengers. Most of the survivors were ferry crew, while most of those drowned were teachers and high school students from Danwon High School.
