With spark of undead life, ‘Rampant’ rules
Heavy is the head that wears the crown — especially when that crown-bearer has to battle political rivals and zombies who want his head, one metaphorically, the other literally.
Equal parts Shakespeare, “Game of Thrones,” “The Godfather,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “28 Days Later,” the swashbuckling, bloodthirsty South Korean film “Rampant” is a rollicking genre mash-up that’s what you might get if Hamlet were being chased by the undead for two hours.
At the start of “Rampant,” Western sailors are covertly selling arms to dissenters in the ancient Asian kingdom of Joseon, the predecessor to contemporary Korea. The rebels, including the Crown Prince Lee Young (Kim Tae-woon), want to overthrow King Lee Jo (Kim Eui-sung) because of his fealty to the Chinese empire’s Qing dynasty.
But the Westerners are hauling more than guns on their ships; they are also unwittingly bringing some sort of illness that turns victims into ravenous, flesh-eating fiends who come out only at night. This complicates the political war among the king’s loyalists, his opposition and the nefarious and murderous Kim Ja-Joon ( Jang Donggun), one of the king’s chief ministers, who thinks he can use the zombies — or “demons” as they’re called — to his scheming advantage.
Stepping into the middle of all this is prodigal Prince Ganglim aka Lee Chung (Hyun Bin, “The Swindlers”), the Crown Prince’s younger and more carefree, womanizing brother, who has just returned from China. Everyone thinks he, too, wants to take charge of the family business, but he has no interest in ruling. But with both zombies hungry for humans on one side and plotting politicians hungry for power on the other, Ganglim has no choice but to become the reluctant, swordwielding hero.
“Rampant” has a few too many characters to get to know well, so their deaths don’t have the impact they might have had. But this is a minor fault in what is otherwise a zombie-slaying good time.
Directed by Kim Sung-hoon with an epic, wide-screen vigor — there are moments that seem straight out of a prestige costume drama while the zombie attacks are akin to a biblical locust invasion — the often electric “Rampant” taps into the same flesh-ripping appeal as “Train to Busan,” the 2016 South Korean film that ranks as one of the best zombie movies ever.
Like its initially recalcitrant but ultimately determined and brave prince, “Rampant” totally rules.