[WEBTOONS REIMAGINED] 'Undead' students lurch from webtoon to TV screens

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[WEBTOONS REIMAGINED] 'Undead' students lurch from webtoon to TV screens

On-jo (played by Park Ji Hu) stares in disbelief at a student-turned-zombie as the zombie virus starts to spread uncontrollably over her school. [NETFLIX]

On-jo (played by Park Ji Hu) stares in disbelief at a student-turned-zombie as the zombie virus starts to spread uncontrollably over her school. [NETFLIX]



Webtoon, a compound word of web and cartoon, refers to a type of digital comic read on smartphones. This genre has become a treasure trove for creators who adapt their narratives into a live-screen format. The concept has been popular with Korean viewers since the early 2000s, but foreign viewers are now finding out their favorite films and drama series, such as Netflix’s “Hellbound” (2021), “Sweet Home” (2020), “Yumi’s Cells” (2021),“My Roommate is a Gumiho” (2021) on tvN, “Itaewon Class” (2019) on JTBC, “The King’s Affection” (2021) on KBS and most recently “All of Us Are Dead” on Netflix, have all been adapted from webtoons. In Webtoons Reimagined, the Korea JoongAng Daily attempts to compare and contrast the adapted works and the webtoon originals to take a closer look at the narratives that have seen success with Korean and international viewers alike. 
 
Netflix Korea’s zombie apocalypse series “All of Us Are Dead” shot to No. 1 on the Top TV Shows on Netflix global chart for 15 consecutive days after its release on Jan. 28. The series fell to second place after “Inventing Anna” — a Netflix show depicting the story of Anna Delvey, a convicted Russian fraudster who posed as a wealthy heiress — was released. The series fell to second place after “Inventing Anna” — a Netflix show depicting the story of Anna Delvey, a convicted Russian fraudster who posed as a wealthy heiress — was released. It has since dropped to third spot behind “One of Us Is Lying,” and “Inventing Anna,” which remains in the top spot. The series also climbed to No. 5 in the all-time viewership chart for non-English TV programs.
 
The series takes place at a high school in a fictitious city called Hyosan and centers around a gang of students as they battle their way through a zombie outbreak.
 
Although global viewers have become familiar with the concept of K-zombies on screen as seen in “Train to Busan” (2016), “#Alive” (2020) and Netflix’s “Kingdom” (2019-) series, for Koreans the cornerstone of the K-zombie genre is cartoonist Joo Dong-geun’s webtoon “Now at Our School.” This is also the webtoon which was picked up by Netflix and became what global audiences are now familiar as “All of Us Are Dead.” The webtoon was published on Naver from 2009 to 2011.
 
A scene from the Naver webtoon original "Now at Our School" by cartoonist Joo Dong-geun [NAVER WEBTOON]

A scene from the Naver webtoon original "Now at Our School" by cartoonist Joo Dong-geun [NAVER WEBTOON]

 
Earlier this month, Naver Webtoon announced that the viewership of the webtoon increased by 80 times, and weekly interaction by 59 times since the release of the Netflix series.
 
Currently, the webtoon is being serviced in 10 languages including English, Japanese and French.
 
Despite the global fame the show is garnering — as proven by data — local and global responses have varied, with the former criticizing aspects of the adaptation.
 
While it is true that when a certain work is adapted from a popular webtoon, core fans can be harsh when it comes to evaluating how much the on-screen version was on par with the original content. In relation to “All of Us Are Dead” some have pointed out that some of the characters’ narratives were clichéd or shinpa — a Korean term referring to overly emotional scenes stemming from clichés such as relationships between lovers, friends and family or the sacrifices they make for their loved ones.  
 
“A unique original became a wad full of clichés as it was turned into a drama series,” one viewer wrote on an online community. Another viewer wrote, “many of the narratives seemed to be loosely handled. A normative pattern seen in zombie genres — repetition of having a crisis and averting it were mechanically structured to the point that it felt boring.”
 
While global audiences have praised the latest K-zombie release, they also say that it didn’t leave them with the same mind-blowing impact they felt after watching “Squid Game.”
 
“This is the third Korean Netflix original in just a few months to blow me away,” Britain’s The Guardian wrote in its review. “And while it won’t repeat the planet-crushing success of ‘Squid Game’ — nothing will, not even ‘Squid Game’ season two — it still reverberates with the same winningly doomy existentialism of ‘Hellbound.’”
 
However, the review continues, “There are only so many things that you can do with a zombie story, and this show doesn’t invent any new moves, so we do spent a lot of time repeating the same basic scene set-up [...] It’s a testament to the power of the characters, here, that this carousel of secondhand tropes never quite manages to slip into tedium.”
 
“Like ‘Squid Game’ before it,” Variety wrote, “'All of Us Are Dead’ makes the most out of its nightmarish central location to otherworldly, dizzying effect.
 
“The show’s weakness, then, lies beyond the labyrinthine school itself as it tries to view the outbreak from the outside in. Watching yet another military take on zombies, no matter how bone-crunchingly sickening the ones in ‘All of Us Are Dead’ are, just isn’t that interesting after seeing so many other TV shows and movies do the same.”
 
IGN, an American video game and entertainment media website describes the series as “clever, thrilling, and also... a bit exhausting.”
 
“Around Episodes 8 and 9, there’s a chance you’ll feel a bit snowblind amongst all the thrashing limbs and gnashing teeth,” it continues. “A ton could be trimmed from this tale, especially some of the adjunct stories that focus on other outbreak survivors outside of the school.”
 
The basic plot of the webtoon and the adapted series remains the same, and at the basis of it lies the uniqueness of the K-zombie which focuses on different facets of humanity and outlines social issues which are suddenly thrown into the light under extreme conditions. However, some have called out the Netflix series for cramming in too many social issues that are prevalent in today's society. While the original webtoon focused on a couple of teenage students were able to survive in a locked down school filled with zombies, the drama packed much more narrative behind each of the characters to emphasize socially sensitive matters such as school violence, cyber bullying, sexual harassment, economic and social disparities and collectivism, which were only slightly hinted at in the original. 
 
Three points where the screen version deviates from the webtoon lie with the elaborated narratives of three characters — science teacher Lee Byeong-chan (played by Kim Byong-chul) and soul-crushing villains Na-yeon (played by Lee You-mi) and Gwi-nam (played by Yoo In-soo).
 
In the webtoon, the cause behind the spread of the virus remains a mystery until the end: Byeong-chan’s son, Jin-su falls ill after going fishing with his father. Jin-su then ends up as "undead" and kills his mother while his father is out of the house looking for medicine for him.  
 
In a desperate attempt to find out more about his son’s disease, the teacher experiments on an innocent student named Hyun-joo who wanders inside his science lab. Although he initially believes that Hyun-joo was infected when she got bitten by one of the zombie mice that he was experimenting on, when she shows no sign of infection, he purposefully injects Jin-su’s blood into her, thereby making her patient zero who spreads the zombie virus in and outside of school.
 
 Science teacher Lee Byung-chan (played by Kim Byong-chul) in the Netflix series, left, has a more valid explanation for experimenting on a student compared to the webtoon. [NETFLIX, NAVER WEBTOON]

Science teacher Lee Byung-chan (played by Kim Byong-chul) in the Netflix series, left, has a more valid explanation for experimenting on a student compared to the webtoon. [NETFLIX, NAVER WEBTOON]

 
At the very end of the story, it is revealed that an unidentified meteor has been wedged deep within the ocean and a wormlike substance has been contaminating the sea creatures around it. Another fisherman in Japan is bitten and the story comes to an end with the narration that the same zombie apocalypse which occurred in Hyosan erupts in another country.
 
In the Netflix series, the character of the teacher has a more heart-wrenching justification behind his behavior: His son is bullied in school to the extent that he tries to commit suicide.
 
“We live in a system of violence. A nobody like me can’t change the system. That’s why I decided to change my son,” Byeong-chan tells a police detective when interrogated about why he experimented on Hyun-joo.
 
Byeong-chan tried to report the bullying matter to the school but the school shut it down saying it would ruin the school’s reputation. Byeong-chan, however, turns out to be something of a genius scientist and he develops a substance that he thinks could make his son overcome his fear of bullies — turning him into a predator instead of prey. 
 
The Netflix series more sharply highlights issues such as school violence and cyber bullying through the character of Gwi-nam (played by Yoo In-soo), above, compared to the webtoon [NAVER WEBTOON, NETFLIX]

The Netflix series more sharply highlights issues such as school violence and cyber bullying through the character of Gwi-nam (played by Yoo In-soo), above, compared to the webtoon [NAVER WEBTOON, NETFLIX]

 
School violence and cyber bullying was also highlighted through Gwi-nam’s character. From Episode 1, Gwi-nam and his pack of bullies prey upon the weak, targeting Jin-su and others such as Eun-ji, who is forcefully filmed without a top. Gwi-nam taunts and threatens Eun-ji that he will release the footage on social media. In the webtoon, while it is implied through the characters’ dialogue that Gwi-nam had sexually harassed female students, after he turns into a half-zombie his craving is centered more on consuming flesh, although he only pursues females out of spite.  
 
On Twitter, a viewer wrote, “I had high expectations for the series because it was adapted from a webtoon but after hearing about such scenes, my feelings are completely ruined.” Similar criticisms arose with viewers questioning the relevance of  such “repulsive” scenes regarding female students in the narrative of a zombie apocalypse.
 
Na-yeon in the Netflix series (played by Lee You-mi) is not as heartless as the original character in the webtoon [NETFLIX]

Na-yeon in the Netflix series (played by Lee You-mi) is not as heartless as the original character in the webtoon [NETFLIX]

 
Na-yeon, on the other hand, was given a chance for redemption in the series. 
 
In the webtoon, there was no basis behind her evilness. She is merely selfish to the point that she will do anything — even kill — for the sake of her survival. On the screen, Na-yeon is a more dimensional character who looks down on her friends who live in low-income housing and discriminates against them accordingly. Although some of her actions still cannot be justified and she still meets the same gruesome death at the end, the screen version of Na-yeon makes a better choice than the webtoon, thanks to the sacrifice of a teacher. 
 

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]
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